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Since the Kindle Fire was released in November, it’s been flying off of store shelves with record speed. It quickly became Amazon’s number one selling product, outpacing the e-ink based Kindles. And as the holiday season approaches, Kindle Fire sales show no sign of slowing down.
Everyone’s been eager to find out just how many units Amazon has managed to sell, and the historically tight-lipped company has, for the first time, released some vague sales numbers.
According to Amazon, it is selling “well over” one million Kindle devices per week, and has been for the past three weeks.
Amazon does not give an exact number, or separate the Kindle Fire from its other models, but because the Kindle Fire is Amazon’s top selling device, it’s safe to assume that the Fire makes up a good chunk of that one million. Analysts have said that Amazon may sell as many as five million Fires by the end of the year, a number that doesn’t sound far-fetched. In comparison, Apple sold 11 million during the third quarter of this year.
Unlike Apple, Amazon has been able to keep up with demand. It met millions of pre-orders and never ran out of the device. You can order a Kindle Fire right now and get next day shipping, a feat that would have been impossible a month after the release of the iPad 2. Apple’s newest iPad did have record sales in the first week – over one million – but could not keep up with initial demand.
Will the Kindle Fire be able to keep that pace after the holiday season is over and finally take a larger chunk of the tablet market share from Apple? At this point, there’s no way to tell, but consumer complaints about the Kindle Fire could have a significant impact until Amazon is able to implement a fix or supply a new device.
In general, worldwide tablet shipments are up 23.9 percent, which is an increase of 264.5 percent compared to last year. The International Data Corporation (IDC) recently increased its shipment forecast for 2011 to 63.3 million units, from 62.5 million units, in part because of the Kindle Fire.
As of right now, Apple still has the lion’s share of the market – 61.5 percent, with other manufacturers trailing behind. Android tablets have a 32.4 percent share, but that is expected to jump up to 40.3 percent during the fourth quarter of 2011, again due to Amazon’s Kindle Fire.
While Apple will continue to have the majority share for the foreseeable future, the Fire’s current success does prove that there is a place for Android tablets in the market. Both Amazon and Barnes and Noble have found the sweet spot for pricing and have carved a niche for lower cost tablets. It will be interesting to see what these numbers look like at the end of 2012.
via : Padgadget