“Since Amazon.com simply won’t give us a number on its Kindle Fire shipments, CEO Jeff Bezos really leaves us no choice but to play guessing games with third-party sources,” Evan Niu reports for The Motley Fool.
“Suppli has released its latest batch of estimates on the state of the tablet market as of the fourth quarter,” Niu reports. “The market-intelligence specialist estimates that Amazon shipped 3.9 million Fire tablets in that timeframe, promptly jumping to claim the silver medal with a 14% market share. The overall market grew from 17.4 million units to 27.1 million units, a 55% bigger pie. Apple’s shipments grew 39% to 15.4 million, but that growing base made Cupertino’s market share slip. Samsung’s 2.1 million tabs moved was just an 8% increase, while B&N’s units soared by 156% to 1.9 million tablets on the heels of its new Nook Tablet.”
Niu reports, “Suppli analyst Rhoda Alexander expects the iPad 3 demand to outstrip supply for several months once its released.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: How many tiny screen Kindle Fires were returned?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “David E.” for the heads up.]
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I know four persons who got kindle fires for xmas and three who got ipads. No ipads or fires returned that I have heard.
Where are they getting these numbers? Didn’t Amazon themselves say they only sold 4M tablets in total (all versions of Kindle)? This is total BS!
Who cares, really? They’re different markets. I can’t wait for the iPad 3 to arrive; I’ve just had an inheritance and a tax rebate, so I can finally afford to walk into a dealership and hand over cash for a top of the range one. Yowza! I have zero interest in a Kindle of any sort, as I can use the Kindle app, whereas Kindle owners usually have no interest or cannot afford an iPad. Same as some BlackBerry owners; one I was talking to today has zero interest in an iPhone, despite being offered one for free. Her ‘Berry does all she needs her phone to do. Horses for courses.
That’s a good perspective on the situation. There is always going to be a low-end market in which Apple will not participate unless it can do so with a quality product (e.g., iPod shuffle). If those folks are happy with their Fires or Nooks or BBs, then that’s fine.
I do believe that Apple will eventually offer the iPad in several different display sizes, including one in the 7.5″ range, plus or minus. After all, Apple offers variations on most of their products, and the iPad is selling far better than regular computers. It only makes sense – there is nothing magical or sacred about a 9.7″ display.
Actually there is something magical or sacred about a 9.7″ display. Steve Jobs publicly stated that they went through years of testing and determined 9.7″ was the smallest a tablet could be without losing the screen real estate necessary to run powerful desktop-class apps. If anything the iPad might get bigger, not smaller.
What I find odd though is the new Kindle Fire commercials directly comparing it to the iPad.
Anyone who buys a Fire based on that thinking it does everything an iPad does is going to be sorely misled.
All at a loss right? Apple is doing stellar sales in a bad economy. Just imagine a good economy. Maybe not returns rather remorse.
I too wonder if the number for Kindle Fires is actually for all modles of the Kindle. What do you think?