Taking on the toughest challenge, Amazon may re-enter the high-end tablet market.

As the Android and iOS systems become more refined, the living space for third - party ROMs has gradually been squeezed, and Amazon's Fire OS is no exception. The decline of Fire OS has affected Amazon's tablet products that use it. Recently, according to a relevant report from Reuters, Amazon may be developing a high - end tablet named Kittyhawk, and its biggest highlight is that it is equipped with the Android system.

Currently, Amazon's tablets are mainly targeted at the mid - to low - end market. For example, the Fire HD 8, which is positioned at the lowest end, is priced at only $54.99 and is equipped with the hexa - core main control MT8169A launched by MediaTek in 2022. Its performance is roughly comparable to that of Huawei Hisilicon's Kirin 650. Even the Fire Max 11, which is positioned at the highest end, is only sold for $334.99, and the performance of the MediaTek MT8188J it is equipped with is only slightly stronger than that of the Dimensity 700.

It is not difficult to find that the market competitiveness of Amazon's current tablet products has a huge gap compared with those of mainstream Android camp manufacturers. This is why in the global tablet shipment statistics for the second quarter of 2025 released by Canalys, Amazon is classified as "others". In fact, Amazon has also tried to enter the high - end tablet market. In 2013, when tablets were just emerging, they launched the FIRE HDX tablet, which was equipped with Qualcomm's flagship platform, the Snapdragon 800 at that time.

It's a pity that at that time, Amazon seemed to be more focused on the Echo smart speaker, so the FIRE HDX was only launched for one generation and then disappeared. Since it didn't show any interest in high - end tablets for a long time after that, why did Amazon suddenly change its mind in 2025 when the competition among mainstream tablet manufacturers has reached a fever pitch?

If Amazon is really preparing to re - enter the high - end tablet market, the situation it will face is obviously much worse than in 2021. After all, leading manufacturers such as Samsung, Huawei, and Xiaomi have firmly covered different scenarios, and Amazon hardly has a chance to get a share from these mobile phone manufacturers.

If Amazon really wants to enter the high - end tablet market at this time, the situation it will face is obviously much worse than in 2021. After all, leading manufacturers such as Samsung, Huawei, and Xiaomi have firmly covered different scenarios, and it hardly has a chance to get a share from these mobile phone manufacturers.

So what exactly drives Amazon to still try to make high - end tablets? In fact, the most likely answer is that Amazon's device department is trying to save itself. In May 2025, this e - commerce giant announced that it would cut about 100 positions in its device and service department, involving hardware product lines such as Alexa, Echo, and Ring.

As is well known, Amazon's top priority at present is AI. The investment of $75 billion represents the company's determination to stand at the forefront of the AI era, and the cost of all this is borne by the hardware business. This department has repeatedly become the victim of CEO Andy Jassy's "cost - first" strategy, and almost every round of layoffs affects this department.

The current reality is that Amazon's most core products in the device department, the Echo smart speaker and the Kindle e - reader, are both facing huge difficulties because the markets they are in have been shrinking.

In order to fulfill the promise of "saving $3 billion in costs annually", Amazon has shut down experimental projects such as telemedicine services and physical delivery plans. Coupled with the contraction of the hardware business, it is an inevitable trend to focus on cash - cow businesses such as Prime Video and AWS, as well as future - oriented AI business. As the object to be "discarded", Amazon's device department naturally has a tough time. So, in order to prove its own value, it needs to actively look for opportunities.

It should be noted that the AI business is a bottomless pit. When competitors such as Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Apple are all making heavy investments, Amazon has to follow suit. As a relatively marginal business, the situation of the device department will only become more and more difficult year by year. It is obviously unrealistic to expect management to be lenient. Now, high - end tablets seem to have become the lifeline for its device department because they have seen the continuous release of the demand for tablets in education, light office, and entertainment scenarios, so they also want to find new opportunities from it.

But can Amazon really do well in the high - end tablet market? It can only be said that with the current maturity of the supply chain, it is not difficult for them to produce a qualified product. But the real challenge is how to make consumers not choose Samsung's Galaxy Tab or Google's Pixel Tablet, but instead pay at least $400 for Amazon, which hasn't made high - end tablets for twelve years.

This article is from the WeChat official account "3eLife" (ID: IT - 3eLife), written by 3eLife's editor, and published by 36Kr with authorization.