Fire in the Hole! Amazon May Ship 9-Inch Kindle by Midyear.
There's no question that Amazon's going to sell a lot of Kindle Fires this year. And it might sell even more if it rolls out new and larger versions of the device. And according to some, that's the plan.
Context & Ripple Effects
The 9-inch Kindle is not a new whisper: DigiTimes reported back in November 2011 that an 8.9-inch next-generation Fire display was in the works, followed days later by a claim of Q2 2012 launch timing. What AllThingsD adds on top is the midyear window and the framing that a bigger screen would lift sales of a device line already moving more than a million Kindles a week, even as analysts flagged that volume might not save Amazon's Q4 estimates.
The hardware rumor lands alongside a confirmed content push: Amazon has more than tripled Prime Instant Video's catalog since launch, is hiring creative executives for original comedies and kids shows, and was reported days earlier to be close to a Viacom streaming deal (unconfirmed). A larger Fire is the natural screen for that catalog — which is why the supply-chain chatter and the content build-out belong in the same story.
First-order effects
- If the midyear ship date holds, Amazon's tablet line splits into two tiers by summer 2012 — the 7-inch Fire at its current price point plus a larger model — giving buyers a size choice rather than a single device.
- Component suppliers riding the Fire's order ramp face a second production cycle within months; DigiTimes already reported Amazon increasing orders through late 2011, so a midyear refresh extends that demand curve.
Second-order effects
- Rival 7-inch Android tablets lose their main differentiator against the Fire — price — if Amazon adds screen size while holding its content-subsidized pricing model, forcing competitors to answer on specs or services.
- A bigger Fire strengthens the Prime bundle: more screen real estate makes the tripled Instant Video catalog and any Viacom-style licensing deal (still unconfirmed) more valuable per subscriber, deepening the lock-in loop between hardware and media.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward tablets as content-delivery hardware sold near cost, with margin recovered through Prime subscriptions and media purchases — a structure where display size becomes a segmentation tool rather than a premium feature.
- If Amazon keeps pairing supply-chain scale with exclusive content investment, the e-reader maker cements itself as a full media platform, pressuring both device rivals and traditional TV distributors over time.
The trend: Amazon is evolving the Kindle from single-purpose e-reader into a tiered, content-subsidized tablet family, with each hardware step timed to expand the reach of its Prime media ecosystem.