New Amazon Kindle Fires will Use Bing by Default
Maybe Jeff Bezos and other executives at Amazon took the “Bing It On” challenge and liked what they saw so much that they decided to switch to a new default search engine platform.
After making Google the official default search engine on the original Kindle Fire 7-inch tablet, which is in the hands of roughly 5 million consumers and has captured 22% of the total tablet market share, Amazon will be turning to Microsoft as the provider of the default search engine on the new set of Kindle Fires slated for release later this fall, according to reputable sources.
This means that the Kindle Fire HD and all of its variations will search using Bing by default. Although Google certainly shouldn’t worry about its overall dominance, it could be a loss in advertising dollars given how competitive the new Amazon Kindle Fires will be with Apple’s ever-present iPad.
Amazon’s Aggressive Pricing on the New Kindle Fire
The Kindle Fire HD is priced very aggressively, particularly in comparison to the iPad; so aggressive, in fact, that Amazon has already admitted it will be losing money on each hardware sale in hopes of regaining value through software sales.
Some release dates should indicate how soon Bing will be getting thousands of new users:
- updated Kindle Fire w/ better performance, more memory, longer battery: Sept. 14
- Kindle Fire HD 16 GB: Sept. 24 (the release date was moved up “due to popular demand”)
- Kindle Fire HD 32 GB: Oct. 25
- Kindle Fire HD 8.9″: Nov. 20
- Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ 4G LTE: Nov. 20
Perhaps the most interesting model in the lineup is the 4G LTE model. Despite costing $200 more than the other 8.9″ model just for the addition for 4G functionality and extra disk space, it represents a bargain at $499 in comparison to the similarly spec’d iPad 4G, which retails for $729.
But Will Most Users Stick with Bing or Switch Over to Google?
Of course, users will still have the option of using other browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Opera and Dolphin, most of which search using Google by default. However, since its inception, the Kindle Fire has been a media consumption device largely targeted at casual users looking to enjoy movies, music, TV shows and apps with minimal hassle. The average user, even of the $499 model, should be unlikely to switch away from the included Silk browser which will default to Bing.
Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land theorizes that Microsoft may actually be paying Amazon to use Bing as its default search engine, which would help to explain why the new Kindles are so inexpensive.
Does the fact that the new Kindles will use Bing by default make you more or less likely to buy one?
