On November 15th, TechInsights took a look at the latest entrant into the crowded tablet market – the Amazon Kindle Fire. Many wondered at the time of its announcement if this new release would have the same underwhelming effect on Apple’s dominance of the tablet industry that other competitors such as Motorola and RIM have had. With over 3 million units pre-ordered, and another 2 million in estimated sales speculated for after its release, the answer would be no.
How did the Kindle Fire make such noise in the tablet space? Firstly, there was the price point. The Kindle Fire was listed at $199 USD making it the most affordable dual-core processor-based tablet available. Only a detailed teardown could reveal how the Kindle Fire would be able to create a device at such a low-cost. Our findings revealed a simple, clean design that offered many of the same component features of other tablets while choosing lower cost components to keep the overall BOM costs low.
The major design winner is Texas Instruments. Starting with the inclusion of the OMAP4430 applications processor, TI has FIVE other design wins, including transceivers and transmitters. See our full listing below for more details.
The Amazon Kindle Fire marks the first major design win for ILITEK, a small Taiwanese display controller manufacturer. Their 21D7QS001K touch screen controller makes its debut in the Fire tablet and will definitely boost the company’s profile.
Other winners for design sockets belong to Samsung, and Elpida.