The Amazon Kindle Fire costs just over its $199 in components according to teardown specialists IHS iSuppli.
TechRadar has previously speculated (along with everyone else) that the Kindle Fire was being sold at a loss by Amazon as it looks to make its money back on media sales.
And, iSuppli's figure of $201.70 means that this is indeed the case, with all the not inconsiderable marketing and research costs to add to this.
Kindle on fire
The Amazon Kindle Fire appears to be a massive hit for Amazon based on early sales, with the company already extending its manufacturing order following good pre-sales.
Now the modified Android tablet has arrive in the US, the subsidised price point has not only given it a massive burst of publicity, but also left it pouring from both Amazon's virtual shelves and third-party retailers' actual ones.
iSuppli's figure shows that Amazon has done everything it can to keep its costs down and losses small – with hardware not even trying to stack up against premium tablets like Apple's iPad.
Choices
"All the choices have been made here to minimize the hardware cost," said iSuppli analyst Andrew Rassweiler.
"We expected to see a certain wireless module that's commonly been seen in other tablets, and we were surprised that it wasn't there.
"There was a cheaper one with fewer features that saved them a few bucks."
Of course, with the components world constantly moving on, the costs will inevitably drop quickly for Amazon to produce the Kindle Fire, which means that it could well start actually making a small gain on the tablets themselves, and continue to rake in money from the media sold on the device.
