Amazon's Starting a Mother of a Tablet Price War

By Rick Munarriz – May 8, 2013 at 7:30PM

NASDAQ: AMZN

Amazon

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Amazon's Kindle Fire HD promotion isn't just about moms.

Between now and Mother's Day, anyone punching in FIRE4MOM as an Amazon.com (AMZN 1.30%) checkout code will get $20 off any Kindle Fire HD. The move effectively shaves the price of the leading online retailer's high-def tablet to as little as $179.

Yes, Amazon had a bigger sale during November's Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, but this temporary price break comes at a time when Amazon is holding up well outside of Apple's (AAPL 0.64%) market-leading iPad.

Industry tracker IDC reports that 1.8 million Kindle Fire tablets were shipped during the first quarter of this year, matching the number of shipments of all of tablets put out by all manufacturers backing Microsoft's (MSFT 1.65%) Windows.

In this video, longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz explores the significance of Amazon promoting its tablet line on its home page this week.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends and owns shares of Amazon.com and Apple. It also owns shares of Microsoft. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.