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Proving true to the name, the Kindle Fire had the necessary fuel on Black Friday to keep the tablet comfortably at the top of Amazon’s best-selling products list through the 8th week since the device was released.
With no firm numbers being tossed out there all we know for certain is that Amazon claims to have quadrupled their sales of the Kindle Fire during this now-traditional holiday shopping spree.
As reports roll in stating the Kindle Fire sold more units than Apple’s iPad 2, people are starting to speculate that true competition for the iPad has finally seen retail shelves. The remarkable part is that people seem to think ‘number of units sold’ is the most meaningful statistic to evaluate. In order to truly beat the Apple at the tablet game a manufacturer is going to have to do two things: outsell the iPad for a sustained period of time (longer than a holiday binge-shopping weekend) and when the dust settles, show a higher profit (or at least comparable).
The low price on the Kindle Fire makes it an affordable gift-giving choice but there is no mistaking that it isn’t an iPad (or any other high-end Android tablet). For many consumers, the differences will appear subtle and won’t be realized until they are back at home and start to face the restrictions that come from the highly customized version of Android running on the device. This is especially true of a product that sees a large percentage of sales being generated online, away from educated and informative salespeople.
Let’s not forget that part of the Kindle Fire’s appeal is that it is new. It’s much easier to generate initial hype and excitement than it is to maintain it over time. Amazon is going to have to seriously consider how they will bring their tablet back to the spotlight come the spring when Apple is due to announce the much-anticipated iPad 3.
[via cnet]