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Amazon Kindle Case Study

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Amazon Kindle Case Study

The case study under review in the McGraw Hill text International Business: competing in a global marketplace on page 533 deals with the Amazon Kindle e-reader. The e-reader market quickly became flooded with competition from many competitors who have found ways to design the products mainly in the United States but find cheap parts and labor by outsourcing manufacturing to other countries. This international competition is no surprise in an increasingly global market. When deciding where to manufacture the key components of the Amazon Kindle, the main driving factors considered were sleek design that is highly functional and reliable with relatively low price. In designing the display, Amazon utilized the design expertise of a leading company in Cambridge, Massachusetts. E Ink designed the microcapsule beads that make the Kindle’s display visible with miniscule amounts of battery. Despite the research and design coming from American firms, there are no American firms that have the ability to manufacture the “bistable electrophoretic display” that shows an image without utilizing battery power. Amazon landed on a Taiwanese based company to manufacture the display components; which are the single most expensive to manufacture, costing about $60 per unit. Next the wireless card is designed by Qualcomm in San Diego and allows the Kindle user to access the digital bookstore wirelessly. The component cost about $40 to manufacture and is produced by South Korean company, Novatel Wireless. This South Korean company has a manufacturing appeal because of its free trade agreement and increase in standardized quality production. The microprocessor chip is manufactured in Taiwan and China for low labor costs and labor expertise. Freescale, a Texas-based semiconductor company is behind the expert electronic design but still outsources all

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