Well... the kindle was pretty much just a device "to get people to buy more stuff from Amazon." But there were no other competitors at the time. The fire phone was going up against a huge market of phone devices with many better features and ecosystems already.
I would argue Kindles benefit the consumer in that they're also enjoyable reading experiences. You can carry a library's worth of books in your backpack on a device with a wonderful screen.
if you like to read, the kindle paperwhite is amazing. so much better than reading on an ipad or iphone, and you can carry/instantly download so many books/pdfs you find online (browser button automatically sends it to your kindle)/etc... Great for reading, actually benefits the customer.
