One Million Potential iPad Buyers Decided To Purchase Amazon Kindle Fire Instead [Study]


During the holiday shopping season (October – December) the Amazon Kindle Fire sold 4 million units, a number that has one investment bank believing that nearly one million potential Apple iPad 2 buyers turned away from Apple for the Google Android powered device.

Analyst Tavis McCourt at Morgan Keegan wrote in a letter investors on Tuesday that the Amazon Kindle Fire likely stole one million sales from Apple, he then lowered his quarterly estimate for the devices from 16 million units to just 13 million sold.

News of the Amazon sales bump comes just a short time after analytics reporting firm comScore revealed that 97% of all tablet web traffic still comes from Apple iPad based devices, a number likely to tumble as more competent Google Android based tablets hit the market (we saw this same scenario occur when iPhone devices were met with Google Android based Smartphones).

At least part of Amazon’s success has been their willingness to sell the Amazon Kindle Fire as a loss leader with a very well received $199 price tag that left sales swinging forward despite critics panning the devices faults. In comparison the cheapest WiFi only version of the iPad 2 is $199 with just 16GB.

While iPad revenues accounted for 24.3% of Apple’s overall revenue last quarter McCourt has downgraded that to 21.3% for the current quarter.

While iPad sales were down thanks to Amazon Kindle Fire buyers McCourt did push his iPhone estimate from 27 to 29 million units on the strength of better than expected iPhone 4S sales.

Did you decide to forgo an Apple iPad 2 this Christmas for the Amazon Kindle Fire instead? If you did what was behind your motivation to do so?

Sure the Amazon Kindle Fire is winning big right now but can it be used as a Canadian Passport like the iPad 2?

Share this article: One Million Potential iPad Buyers Decided To Purchase Amazon Kindle Fire Instead [Study]
More from Inquisitr