Here’s some news that should warm Jeff Bezos and company’s heart: Consumer interest in Amazon’s Kindle Fire going into the holiday season is pretty high, with 22 percent of likely tablet buyers saying they want a Kindle Fire, according to the results of a new survey from market research firm ChangeWave (via Electronista).
While that pales in comparison to the 65 percent of likely buyers who said they wanted an Apple iPad or iPad 2, the result is significant because the Fire is the first tablet outside of the iPad to score double digit demand, dramatically outshining the third-place competitor, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, which registered just 4 percent of consumer demand.
ChangeWave had earlier in November reported the results of a pre-order survey that found a higher percentage of those surveyed, five percent, had pre-ordered the Kindle Fire, compared to the four percent of those surveyed who pre-ordered the original iPad after it was unveiled in April 2010. Not only that, but 26 percent of those who said they had pre-ordered the Kindle Fire said they would delay purchase of an iPad as a result.
The initial hands-on reviews for Amazon’s foray into the tablet market weren’t kind, with writers blasting the device’s slow, glitchy interface, laggy web browsing and poor external peripherals.
And in its first post-release security controversy, some users are reportedly experiencing a problem with Amazon’s “1-click” purchasing option on the Kindle Fire. Once enabled, it apparently cannot be disabled for some devices, allowing any user to purchase apps and other Amazon products and charge them to the associated credit card.
But none of these issues seems to have resonated much with consumers. At least not yet.
More to the point, Amazon is reportedly moving full steam ahead on assembling a suite of Fire products to compete with Apple: An analyst at Citigroup believes that Amazon is working to release its own smartphone in 2012, jointly developed by Foxconn, the Taiwanese company that also manufactures the iPhone and the iPad, All Things D‘s Peter Kafka reported on Thursday. The phone is expected to cost Amazon $150 to $170 and will be sold at about or under that cost, mimicking the so-called “Gillette” strategy Amazon has employed on the Fire (which reportedly costs just over the $199 price Amazon is selling it for.)
In addition — and this one is for all the Kindle Fire naysayers out there who’ve complained about the device’s small screen size (7 inches) and small onboard storage (8 GB) — Amazon is also said to prepping a larger, 8.9-inch Kindle Fire, presumably with more storage, according to Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes (which, as CNET points out, doesn’t exactly have the best track record when it comes to reliability, but no matter — why let that spoil a good gadget rumor?).
Amazon said on the Kindle Fire’s shipping day, Nov. 14, that the device was its “bestselling item across all of Amazon.com,” but has failed to provide any concrete numbers, mimicking the stance its taken with older Kindles.
Analysts expect anywhere between 1 million and 4 million sales in the fourth quarter alone, PC Magazine reported.
Meanwhile, the awfully similar-looking and similarly-priced Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet is hot on Amazon’s heels, receiving primarily positive reviews, at least in comparison to the Kindle Fire.
Time will tell if the two devices eke it out for second place on the tablet space, if either can displace the iPad, or, if as some analysts speculate, they both fade away like RIM’s Playbook, the poorly-selling tablet upon which Kindle Fire’s physical body is based.
