Amazon gathered a lot of interest in the Kindle Fire before its release, with its daring $199 price point (which, according to analysis by component experts, means they lose money on every sale). Sales have been brisk since the November 15 release date, but as usual Amazon is shy about giving out specific numbers. All Amazon has officially said is that the Kindle Fire was the best-selling product across all of Amazon, as well as the best-selling tablet in Target stores, and that Kindle sales for Black Friday (which includes all Kindle models) were 400% of last year's Kindle sales.
Independent analysts aren't as shy about estimating Amazon's Kindle Fire sales, though. CNET spoke with Carter Nicholas, CEO of Datasource, who said “Our estimate is that Amazon.com has now sold 850,000 units direct from the Amazon.com site. Total sales would be substantially larger. Amazon may have sold as many as 2 million or more so far when you consider all sales channels.” Other analysts have even more positive assessments. Market research firm iSuppli says that Amazon will ship 3.9 million tablets by the end of 2011, giving it the second-place market share of nearly 14% behind Apple's 66% share, well ahead of third place Samsung's 4.8% market share.
Other sources confirm numbers in this range; a new report from DigiTimes says that Amazon will be shipping between 3 and 4 million Kindle Fires bsaed on the number supplier Quanta has shipped to Amazon so far, and Amazon may hit the 5 million number by sometime in January or even earlier. Additional rumors point to Amazon introducing larger versions of the Kindle next year, with 8.9 and 10.1 inch versions in development.
Reviews of the Kindle Fire have been mixed, with reviewers praising the ease of use and the screen, but noting the drawbacks like the paltry 8 GB of memory with no expansion, lack of physical volume and home controls, and a generally buggy UI with occasional crashes. Amazon's version of the Android Market does not include popular Android apps like Google+, Gmail, Google Voice and Google Maps (the latter two left out because of a lack of a microphone and a GPS chip).
The Kindle Fire is a suspect in the disappearance of the RIM PlayBook, which is also manufactured by Quanta and bears a more-than-passing resemblance to the Kindle Fire physically. The PlayBook's shipments to retailers for the quarter ended November 26th were a dismal 150,000 units; sales to customers were undoubtedly less. RIM had sold only 200,000 units in the August quarter, less than half of expectations.
Still, not all the projections for the Kindle Fire are equally glowing. A new study conducted by ad network Chitika found that Kindle Fire usage shot up sharply on November 26th, but then dropped below previous levels. “It would seem that although the Kindle was able to attract a significant user base given its mid-range price point of $200,” Chitika’s Gabe Donnini noted in his report, “once the allure of the device wore off, user activity fell as well.” Donnini suggests that the lack of cellular connectivity and low storage might be to blame. “If you are expecting a full-fledged tablet, you may be disappointed with functionality, given the Kindle Fire is more of an E-reader+.”
