IHS is an online Consumer Electronics analyst and business information services company, and they recently stated they believe Amazon will ship at least 3.9 million Kindle Fire tablets the last three months of 2011. If those numbers hold up, that would give Amazon a whopping 13.8% share of all tablets shipped in Q4. While that is nowhere near Apple’s proposed 65.6% share of quarter for tablet shipments, it almost triples the 4.8% market share held by Samsung. Those numbers are rather impressive when you consider that just four months ago Amazon did not have a dog in the tablet fight.
Buy the Kindle Fire for $199
Rhoda Alexander is a Senior Manager in charge of monitor and tablet research for IHS, and she pointed out that it took almost 2 years after Apple introduced the world to the iPad for a competitor (Amazon) to develop a unique alternative to the popular iPad which has been accepted across-the-board by the consumer-electronics shopper. Many analysts point to the fact that the Kindle Fire offers nowhere near the functionality of an Apple iPad, but the runaway sales figures seen since the Kindle Fire Tablet went on presale order availability in October cannot be overlooked.
At a retail price $300 less than the cheapest iPad, media consumers who could care less about having a camera in their tablet are turning to the Kindle Fire in droves. Aside from having no cameras, the Kindle Fire also offers no microSD slot for storage expansion. Neither does the iPad 2, and you have to pay more for more onboard storage. However, the Kindle Fire actually trumps Apple here, charging no extra money for lifetime, free Cloud storage of all Amazon content. That effectively gives the Kindle Fire tablet limitless storage access and capability at their $199 price tag.
And as long as Amazon keeps selling the Amazon Kindle Fire at close to a break-even retail price point, consumers will continue to buy. The reason Amazon can afford to basically give away the Kindle Fire tablet is its incredibly numerous and diverse, high-margin, low cost media marketplace. Accessing the Kindle store and Amazon’s App Store directly from the Kindle Fire has been made super-simple and efficient, thereby providing literally millions of e-books, applications and games which can be downloaded and stored in Amazon’s Cloud instantly. Amazon also adds a 30 day free trial of their Prime Membership with every Kindle Fire, which allows for streaming video and free shipping on any items ordered from their retail website. Buy the Kindle Fire for $199!
