Amazon registers Kindle Fire products under a different company name

Online retail giant Amazon has registered trademarks for its new Kindle Fire tablet, as well as related products, under a separate company name called Seesaw.

In September, Amazon debuted the Kindle Fire, its first tablet computer, which runs a heavily modified version of the Android mobile operating system, and will compete directly with other Android tablets as well as the iPad. And although the company has created the e-ink Kindle reader, its primary business is in online retail — not hardware manufacturing.

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Fusible, which originally spotted that five Kindle Fire products were registered under Seesaw, suggests that Amazon could be setting up a separate company for its tablet business to give it the proper attention.

While this very well may be the case, I think its far more likely a book-keeping tactic. Amazon isn’t a hardware company, and it’s actually taking a $10 loss on each Kindle Fire so that it can push its digital products, like ebooks, music, and more. In this way, the Kindle Fire will still generate money for the company, even though the device itself isn’t profitable.

Should this strategy fail, Amazon may not want to simply shut down its tablet business. Instead, it might want to sell it off to recuperate some of those expenses, which would be much easier if you’ve already established which parts of the business are separate from the main retail business.

The Kindle Fire won’t make its public debut until mid-November, so we won’t really have an accurate prediction of its success (or failure) for a while.