“Amazon celebrated another milestone for its hardware Thursday by claiming the ‘best holiday ever’ for its Kindle line,” Electronista reports.
“It marked over four million combined sales of the Kindle Fire and Kindle line in December, including the regular touch and e-paper models,” Electronista reports. “It wouldn’t break down the shipments by the individual model and isn’t expected to give its quarterly numbers.”
Electronista reports, “The sales tallies might cast some doubt on rumors of Amazon shipping five million Kindle Fires in the fall. With only six weeks of sales to work from and only some of the known four million being the Android tablet, the real sell-through would need to be significantly lower by necessity. Amazon could still claim second place in the tablet market given the poor turnout of fellow Android supporters, but it may not be as much as thought by some and won’t be a significant threat to the iPad.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: All Kindles, including cheapo $79 black and white e-readers, combined sold just 4 million units in December?
Weak. Very weak.
And now for the Kindle Fire return parade, about which Amazon will never utter even a single solitary peep.
Related articles:
Tablet display shootout: Apple iPad ‘excellent,’ Amazon Kindle Fire ‘major flaws’ – December 20, 2011
If Amazon’s Kindle Fire is so hot, why is it still in stock? – December 19, 2011
‘Kindle Fire: The Missing Manual’ author to return Kindle Fire, keep his ‘years ahead’ Apple iPad 2 – December 15, 2011
Amazon touts Kindle e-reader sales with few details – December 15, 2011
Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire’s big security problem – December 14, 2011
Lack of parental controls on Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire lets kids charge up a storm – December 12, 2011
Disgruntled early adopters of Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire have slew of complaints – December 12, 2011
Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire estimated to play distant second fiddle to Apple’s market-dominating iPad – December 6, 2011
Usability expert Jakob Nielsen tests Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire: ‘A disappointingly poor user experience’ – December 5, 2011
Instapaper creator reviews Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire: Bad game player, bad app platform, bad web browser, bad video player and bad Kindle – November 18, 2011
PCWorld reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Flawed, unimpressive, subpar; can’t hold a candle to iPad – November 16, 2011
Mossberg reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Frustrating, clunky, much less capable and versatile than iPad – November 16, 2011
Apple iPad 2 vs. Amazon Kindle Fire: Bootup, browsing, and Netflix streaming (with video) – November 16, 2011
Wired reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Web browsing sucks, emotionally draining, makes reading a chore – November 14, 2011
NY Times’ Pogue reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Sluggish, ornery, unpolished – November 14, 2011
The Verge reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Uninspired, confusing, incredibly unoriginal – November 14, 2011
Engadget reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Sluggish, clunky, too limiting and restricted – November 14, 2011
PC Magazine reviews Apple iOS 5: The best phone and tablet OS, Editors’ Choice – October 15, 2011
The Guardian reviews Apple iPad 2: Ahead of the pack – March 25, 2011
The Telegraph reviews Apple iPad 2: Does everything better; now’s the perfect time to join the iPad club – March 25, 2011
Computerworld reviews Apple’s iPad 2: ‘The Holy Grail of computing’ – March 16, 2011
Ars Technica reviews Apple iPad 2: Big performance gains in a slimmer package
Associated Press reviews Apple iPad 2: Apple pulls further ahead – March 10, 2011
PC Mag reviews Apple iPad 2: The tablet to get; Editors’ Choice – March 10, 2011
Associated Press reviews Apple iPad 2: Apple pulls further ahead – March 10, 2011
PC Mag reviews Apple iPad 2: The tablet to get; Editors’ Choice – March 10, 2011
Pogue reviews Apple iPad 2: Thinner, lighter, and faster transforms the experience – March 10, 2011
Baig reviews Apple iPad 2: Second to none – March 10, 2011
Kids around the globe are pissed their cheapo parents stuck them with a Kindle instead of an iPad for Christmas.
Coal-Fire victims.
I believe it! Got one for my dad. Returning one also.
I bought a Kindle for my wife for Christmas. I wish I could have got her an iPad, but it was outside my budget. It was easier to get her an e-reader for $150.00 than $500.00. Someday we’ll upgrade her, but this will keep her happy till then.
hey Jeramy!
How’s that new MBA and iPhone 4s you bought for yourself working out?
LOL! – I WISH!
I don’t have the iPhone 4S, but I won’t complain about my iPhone 4.
‘Someday we’ll upgrade her, but this will keep her happy till then.’
I hope she’s happy about that.? ;-/
I suspect my significant other would like to upgrade me.
If Amazon declines to break out Kindle unit vs revenue/profit numbers for the next few quarters it will be a sure sign of high return rates.
Kindle Fire Amazon ratings. Nearly 20% are 1 or 2 star. My guess is 15 % return rate. An 85 year old neighbor got a fire from his grand kids and he ask my opinion of the KF vs iPad. I told him to read the reviews. He’s returning and buying an iPad. No way he would have had the skills to solve the connection/software issues. Having Apple store 5 minutes away and the set up assistance available was also a positive re the iPad.
Have you heard of anyone boasting about his beautiful wife but does not want to show her publicly? Amazon must be one of a narcissistic husband going out for cheap publicity but does not dared to prove the claim.
With similar situations in the past, I’ve been able to estimate hidden high return rates by comparing suspiciously glowing claims for units shipped against relative revenue/earnings across multiple quarters, although company as large as Amazon has more options to cloak return rates. Call me cynical, but I’m not expecting them to willingly reveal the true number.
The fire is out
My sister got a fire for Christmas.
It’s not a bad device, but a long shot from an iPad.
I set it up for her… Nightmare.
Connected to her wifi, but refused to go online. Found out its a bug in the 6.0 software.. Luckily my niece had a USB cable that worked with the fire and I was able to side load the 6.2 os, after that I was able to get online and register it etc.
Clunky ui, but over all not “bad”.
It’s just no iPad… By any stretch.
So, to paraphrase you:
“Kindle Fire: It’s not bad, it’s a nightmare.”
*grin*
now watch all the Fragmandroids misinterpret this as Amazon selling 4 million Fires when in fact it’s 4M of all Kindles combined
funny how Amazon is hyping this Fire to death, then too ashamed to reveal actual numbers of the break down.
Love how the Google fans include Fire when it’s trying to prove that Android is open and diversified at all price points, then trying to exclude Fire as a mutant when the actual sales look bad.
Mother in law got one, but she’s cheap and happy with it. My sister in law got a fire to replace her iPad 1.0. Yes, she is indeed in therapy, with self destruction issues.
Maybe Apple can report the number of iDevices so that we can compare with the Kindles.
Pedro, Usually you have to wait for a quarterly report to get the numbers. Lots of estimates are out there, but Apple is pretty good about providing actual numbers when they do report (actually, it usually sounds more like boasting but other than haters, who can claim them?)
Was just in Best Buy the Tuesday after Christmas. Tons of kindle fires on the shelves. No iPads to be be found, but 2 open boxes.
well then Amazon probably sold about 5 million Kindles total in the last five weeks. assuming 2/3 were the Fire, that would mean they sold about 3.3 million Fires. not bad at all for just US sales. chop off 10% for returns and call it 3 million. (i’d bet the iPad return rate is <1%.)
the real losers are all the other Android 7" tablet makers. their US sales just died. bye bye.
I have severalfriends who bought (or received) Kindle Fires. If they don’t return them, or are satisfied, I am sad to admit I’ll lose some respect for them. And don’t ask me for tech support- I refuse to do Windows, and I don’t play with Fire.
Naughty kids at Christmas;
1911 – Lump of coal
2011 – Kindle
4 million sales in December. 3 million returns in January.
I was just at the local drinking hole and some Kindle Fire fanatic was bragging and explaining to some naive individuals on its awesomeness. He bragged how the smaller screen is better for movies, reading, email and so on. iPad screen is to big for basic use. It’s overkill and priced too high. C’mon I almost started laughing out loud.
And Amazon has very little room remaining to cut prices on its devices. So those holiday Kindle sales are as good as it gets for a while – at least until Amazon produces a real tablet.
4 million sold. How many RETURNED?! I can hardly wait to find out. 😛