The Amazon Kindle Fire was touted as the first real iPad competitor due in large part to its low price and Amazon’s massive marketing muscle. While initial shipments were substantial, a new report from IDC suggests that the sales of the Fire have dropped off precipitously. IDC estimates the last quarter of 2011 saw 4.8 million devices ship, but in the first quarter of 2012 Amazon only moved 750,000 Fires.
There are obviously some factors that affect Kindle sales. The Fire was brand new in late 2011, and there was pent up demand. Also, Q4 is the holiday season, when otherwise right-thinking adults spend huge sums of money on things they might not need. However, if you look at the numbers as a share of the overall tablet market, the decrease does look bad. The Fire went from 16.8% of tablets to just 4%. Recent financial warnings from TI (which makes the processor in the Fire) supports this data.
This indicates that the Fire is slipping in relation to other devices — this is not just an effect of a slower shopping season. Apple, for instance, continued to dominate the market by shipping 11.8 million tablets. That’s a much smaller drop as a percentage than the Kindle Fire saw.
A low price might be great for getting people to try a device, but opinions of the Fire had been almost universally mixed. Some functions, like reading ebooks are handled well by the device. But Amazon’s assurances that the Silk browser would revolutionize mobile browsing with its cloud acceleration did not come to pass.
Amazon’s unofficial numbers from IDC leave it in third place behind Apple and Samsung for the first quarter. The low price of the Fire will certainly keep the device moving, but Amazon might not be destined for the tablet dominance some were predicting.
via All Things D
