“ODM orders for Kindle Fire tablet PCs are expected to be cut by half to three million units in the first quarter of 2012, down from about six million units shipped in the last quarter of 2011, according to sources in the supply chain,” Yenting Chen and Steve Shen report for DigiTimes.
“With touch panel orders from Apple still remaining robust at present, Wintek’s consolidated revenues are expected to reach NT$9-10 billion (US$300-333 million) a month in the first quarter of 2012, while TPK is likely to record revenues of NT$14 billion a month for the same quarter, the sources estimated,” Chen and Shen report.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “In line with market expectations during the off-peak season” as DigiTimes sources claim or is this a sign of a larger problem with sales of the horribly-reviewed and possibly highly-returned Kindle Fire?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
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This should help Amazon stock as they will lose less money on the hardware.
In a market where you are up against Apple, any drop in orders can be seen as a bad sign.
If there’s a seasonal down tick of Fire orders, is there a corresponding number of lower iPad orders? It seems that, at worst, there has been a leveling off. But my gut says when the iPad 3 (or 2s) is announced in a month or so, numbers will climb, as the “Fire” smoulders down to the “Ember” (a ripoff of the iTouch…)
I trust DigiTimes reports about Amazon as much as I trust DigiTimes reports about Apple.
The article sounds good but it is from DigiTimes.
I wonder how much a cord of Kindle Fire’s is?.
It’s cold out.
My mother-in-law who lives with us, bought a Kindle Fire for herself. I was hoping that I would now be able to enjoy my iPad whenever I wanted, since she now had her own tablet. But after about a week, she was back to using my iPad all the time ( I can’t ever find my iPad laying idle when I would like to use it). She says that the Kindle Fire she bought is an absolutly miserable experience after being used to my iPad. I guess I will buy her an iPad.
With the debut of iBook Author and iBook2 yesterday, the war against Amazon just went thermonuclear. Perhaps it is time the renamed the Kindle Fire the Kindle Heartburn. No wonder they cut their orders.
there is nothing wrong with the Kindle Fire. It’s not an iPad nor an iPad killer. I know many folks who got them for Christmas. They love them. Most of them already own iPads. Not one of them has said it’s a replacement for an iPad. I tried it and found it fine for what it is meant to do.
That goes against what nearly every tech reviewer had said: that the Kindle Fire is a miserable experience. If you had not claimed that they already owned iPads and also that they loved the Fire your post may have had some credibility. Now I just doubt the whole thing, sorry.
Android astroturfers are going to need to come up with better talking points.
Don’t doubt my credibility, twilightmoon. I deploy hundreds of devices every week in my job. I’m in publishing. We love the iPad. The Kindle Fire is a device meant to consume content from Amazon. We will not be deploying Fires in pour environment.
I have heard good things about the cheaper eInk kindles but nothing good about the more expensive but very clunky fire. I’m still skeptical but maybe there are some strange people out there who are used to iPads and can still enjoy the kindle Zune.
I’m very doubtful though.
If the devices are baseball cards and your job is your parent’s basement, I believe you.
I’d imagine this guy is an Amazon employee. As if anybody with an iPad would require another mobile book reader. I got a lousy galaxy 10.1 pad (don’t ask) and I wouldn’t think of getting a Kindle to read an ebook.
Hold on there, pardner. Have you tried one yourself? If not, don’t start parroting what so-called tech reviewers say. Tbone has stated that he uses and likes both. If you haven’t used one then your criticism has no cred.
Total bullshit. I know a Kindle e-ink user who bought a Kindle Fire and she says it was a piece of shit compared to her first Kindle. She returned it. I let her test drive my Pad1 and she was sold.
Yeah, I have to agree with the replies. The fire is a horrible little iPad wannabe. Anyone who has any experience with an original kindle or an iPad thinks it is a piece of crap. It isn’t a long lived (batteries) eInk ebook reader, nor is it a decent tablet. The only people who are “satisfied” are the people who don’t know any better who opinions are usually shaped by apple haters who say good things (true or not) about any apple competitor.
Get a cheap kindle reader and/or get a iPad. The kindle fire isn’t a a good kindle, nor is it a good tablet.
They have to unstuff the channel.
Fire Sale
+∞!
People buy Fires for others (Christmas gifts) but IPads for themselves, so don’t expect iPad sales to decline like Fires.
Shipped, shipped, shipped…but sold?
Kindling
IMPOSSIBLE!!!
Kindle Fires must be selling like HOT CAKES!
Like I got FOUR!!
1) I bought TWO for myself. Since magazines are not formatted correctly for the Kindle Fire, I found the easy solution to put two Kindles together so that I can read half the magazine on one and half on the other. Putting two together gives me as much real estate as an iPad! Wallah!
2) I got another as a Christmas present from my pal Wally. It’s a USED kindle Fire but that’s ok! Wally’s a saint but a naif when it comes to electro gizmos. He downloaded some pirated Android apps from some site in Eastern Europe — hey Wally dude, Angry Birds don’t come with naked Blondes with Boobs, it’s got to be a Pirate Version… — , got malware and don’t know how to get rid of it so he thought he’ll just wrap it up and give it to me for Christmas…
3) and the final one I FOUND in the snow in my yard the day on Christmas. I guess it belonged to the Kid next door ’cause I could hear yelling “I wanted an iPad, I wanted an iPad… an iPAAAAAD… !!”
see if I got four, Amazon must be selling TONS.
How are your sphincter muscles doing? Promoting Amazon/Kindle the way you do must be costly down under. lol
I think I figured out how Amazon expects to make a profit on these. The Key is, drumroll please; ‘RESTOCKING FEES.’ That’s right charge a restocking fee on each return. Sell, return, restock, repeat. How many times can they restock it, and re-sell it I wonder? Maybe they won’t need any new stock, they cant just recycle the same ones. 🙂
If true, Amazon probably cut orders in half to avoid going bankrupt from losing money on every Kindle Fire sold. I guess the “profit from selling content” strategy is not working too well…
And even if it does work (or at least breaks even), the per unit loss on a Kindle Fire sale is immediate. Recovering the loss by selling content takes time, perhaps months after the sale. Therefore, Amazon is motivated to LIMIT the rate of Kindle Fire sales.