but it's going to destroy the smaller brands and probably force a few of the bigger brands to rethink pricing
100%.
Sony, Samsung, Acer, HTC etc must be pretty pissed right now. Even Motorola that Google now own.
You say rethink pricing? They've obviously sold at whatever RRP for a reason. Costs + Margin = RRP.
Google can sell for no-profit because they don't really care about hardware. They'll make money back via apps/movies etc and via AdWords which is why they give away Android to everyone. More units = More eyes = More ads. Ads is their business so it makes sense to drive that.
But what do the others have? They don't have that choice. If Sony makes a tablet tomorrow that's as good as the Nexus7 and ships it at $199 they won't make any money unless it's a piece of s**t, in which case nobody will buy it anyway. Lol.
The Fire is pretty dire anyway but at least Amazon have a way of making money by selling things in their store. Nobody else has that option. They might as well just give up now.