Good insight from The Verge…always look at the complete picture of why someone is doing something.
If the device gets to scale (it’s already number one on the best-seller list), Amazon will make money by using the Fire TV to sell everything else. That’s how it’s always done things. “We have a philosophy that we try to price our devices as close to break-even as we possibly can,” says Kindle VP Dave Limp. “If they put it in a drawer, we’ve not benefited at all.” Once the consumer has a Fire TV in their living room, he says, “somebody might by à la carte content, movies, TV shows. Somebody might sign up for Prime… we want to be really aligned with the customer that we only make money when they use our products, not when they buy them.”
via The playbook: why Amazon’s Fire TV is a guaranteed hit | The Verge.