Amazon investors are hoping its new Fire tablet will rekindle demand for the company's stock, which has already gained 27 per cent this year.
The world's biggest online retailer has 21 "buy" recommendations on Bloomberg and just one "sell". The stock has 13 "hold" recommendations.
The Fire is an additional means for the online retailer to sell its movies, music, applications and electronic books.
"Kindle Fire integrates all Amazon's advantages in software, logistics, content and cloud," wrote Alvin Kuo, an analyst at JihSun Securities Investment Consulting. "We believe the differentiation will make Amazon stand out in the tablet market."
The Fire, which is less than half the price of the iPad at US$199, poses the biggest threat to Apple's dominance in the tablet market.
"The reality is that Apple is going to lose share from that 80 per cent [market share], which is an unreasonable share to have," said Mr Nadeem Khanzadah, the deputy manager of retail at Jumbo Electronics.
"It will probably come down to 50, 60 per cent in the next year or so."
Amazon has unveiled the Fire at a time when the tablet market is booming.
Gartner Research predicts worldwide tablet sales will reach 63.6 million units by the end of this year, a 261 per cent increase on the 17.6 million units sold last year.
The research firm expects tablet sales to continue to experience strong growth through to 2015, when they are forecast to reach 326.3 million units.
"The tablet market is growing at a rate of about 300 per cent, which means that the market is really exploding, and there will be enough space for everybody to come in," Mr Khanzadah said.
But it is the sale of content rather than its tablet devices where Amazon is aiming to make most of its profits.
The online retailer signed a deal with 20th Century Fox this week that gives its Amazon Prime customers access to more than 10,000 films. The launch of the Fire complements the expansion of Amazon's kindle range.
gvanzyl@thenational.ae
Oppenheimer
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2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Specs
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Lewis Hamilton in 2018
Australia 2nd; Bahrain 3rd; China 4th; Azerbaijan 1st; Spain 1st; Monaco 3rd; Canada 5th; France 1st; Austria DNF; Britain 2nd; Germany 1st; Hungary 1st; Belgium 2nd; Italy 1st; Singapore 1st; Russia 1st; Japan 1st; United States 3rd; Mexico 4th
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950