We already know that Amazon’s Kindle Fire is a hit: it’s reached the top of Amazon’s internal sales charts and has made a good bit of buzz on its rock-bottom price. Now a supply chain analyst is predicting that Amazon could order 5 million Fire tablets before the end of the calendar year, making it the first tablet seller to truly rival Apple’s iPad. Between Amazon’s selling prowess and its integration with its own digital library, they’re poised to make an incredible entrance into the tablet market.

It’s important to note that analyst Ashok Kumar’s predictions deal with Amazon’s OEM operators and suppliers, not actual sales. That is to say, by the end of Q4 the company could have as many as five million Fire tablets in its warehouses, ready to go out to eager holiday shoppers. Current estimates put the Kindle Fire at between 250,000 and 500,000 sold just in preorders.

The Kindle Fire is based on an extremely modified version of Android 2.3 Gingerbread, designed to display Amazon’s retail and digital services prominently. To that effect the hardware itself is a loss-leader, costing Amazon slightly more to manufacture than the $199 selling price. While it won’t have access to the Android Market, Amazon’s own App Store will feature a lot of the same apps, and more should be added as the Fire gains in popularity. Kindle Fire orders begin shipping out on November 15th.

[via SlashGear]

4 COMMENTS

  1. These 5 million would be in North America alone – I can’t really see it personally as other tablets are pouring onto the market – Some very competitively priced and with higher and higher specs.

    There has been a lot of hype but I think there may well be a reality check when customers actually get them and discover the shortcomings over battery life, storage, application, lack of camera, gps etc.

    Sure, those features may not be wanted and/or cost extra but I doubt if there are 5 million that will go for the Fire in its “Mark 1” form especially as the Amazon “content” is generally available elsewhere.

    • Yeah it lacks a camera and gps.  Most people who purchase these have a smart phone that does those already.  No 3 or 4g?  Again, get the smartphone to be the wi-fi hub.  Storage with the free cloud will not be a massive issue in use but it may make people freak (i can see that).

      For the price and the instant connectivity to content this little pad is gonna rock.  It’s no slouch with a dual core chip either.  Also if Silk works as advertised then it could download faster than the ipad.  No ipad killer here but it will put a dent in ipad sales.  Amazon likely to follow on with an ipad spec like device.

      5 million is doable for this price but I would expect more like 3.5 to 4.5M.  Anyway it will fly right past 2M in the xmas season quarter.

      No doubt Fire is a game changer for mobile computing. 

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