Amazon Kindle sales jump 4X year to year, Kindle Fire leads
updated 08:45 am EST, Mon November 28, 2011
Amazon Kindle peaks on Black Friday, no numbers
Amazon on Monday claimed that its Kindle sales on Black Friday were much higher than last year. The combination of the $79 Kindle, Kindle Touch, and Kindle Fire moved four times as many units as the same day last year. The Fire was the top seller, having kept the lead on Amazon's charts for the past eight weeks.
Target claimed that the Kindle Fire was the bestselling tablet in its stores that day, even outselling the iPad 2.
As with previous claims, Amazon declined to provide real numbers and said only that the total line had sold "millions" before the Black Friday spike. Unofficial estimates have Amazon shipping as many as five million Kindle Fire tablets in 2011.
The Fire has been helped primarily by its $199 price, which sees Amazon sell at a loss to build market share. Having a full content ecosystem, which Google and most non-Apple tablet supporters lack, may also have helped drive sales, as might have getting away from the traditional Android interface.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Jan 2010
Sales figures please
I have never understood why Amazon do not release actual sales figures for these things. What have they got to hide? The fact that "millions" might be just thousands in reality? If Apple introduced a 7" iPad, it would destroy the Kindle and Kindle Fire. I doubt Apple will, but I wish they would, a lovely range of 7" and 9.7" iPads, would be unbeatable. Pretty much the way things are at the moment. But good for Amazon if they upset the general Android tablet market i.e. create their own Amazon tablet market. I think the wise ones at HP realised that content from something like iTunes, App Store etc is what makes the tablet market Apple's, with smaller players like Amazon taking the rest. 2012 will be a very interesting year for tablet manufacturers, lets see what the market will be like one year from today.