When my Samsung tablet died after eight years of use, I reluctantly agreed with the Best Buy Geek Squad that it was time to let it go. So, I started looking at tablets to replace it. When I looked at the Amazon Fire, I was surprised to find an advertisement on the lock screen every time I turned it on. I tried to find a toggle in the settings where I could turn this feature off but there was none. I found that very peculiar. And yet it also made a lot of sense.
Most tablets look almost identical when unlocked. They have a highly customizable screen where a user can arrange apps and widgets in the way that they prefer. With the Amazon Fire, the display is a little more structured. The Amazon Fire has several tabs that are obviously designed to encourage users to purchase products off of Amazon. In the top right corner of each of the tabs is a little shopping cart that takes the user to each of the store fronts: books, videos, apps, etc. As a result, even though Amazon is likely making a profit off of the tablets themselves, the company is clearly encouraging incremental profits through the structured layout of the tabs with the shopping cart button. While the user can customize which apps and books they would like to download, the layout on the screen is already pre-determined for them.
Taking this structured model further, the lock screen of the Amazon Fire also lacks the possibility of customization. Every time that the tablet is turned on, a different ad is displayed. Earning revenue from this more or less guaranteed stream of advertisement views allows Amazon to undercut competitors on price. The strategy is also evidenced through the structured tabs described earlier. One aspect that I’m curious about is whether or not the Amazon Fire takes purchase history and internet browsing history into account when targeting the ads to the customers.
What do you think? Are the ads customized and targeted or are they random? Would you enjoy this structured nature or do you think that the lack of customization is not worth the price cut?