Amazon's (NASDAQ:
AMZN
) third-generation Kindle Fire is rumored to launch in roughly 10
months. Citing information from China's Economic Daily News,
DigiTimes
reports that Compal Electronics has landed orders for the new
tablet. Compal is expected to produce 20 to 30 percent of the
estimated three to four million units that Amazon will reportedly
ship next year. Quanta will handle the rest of the manufacturing
duties.
The paper claims that the Kindle Fire 3 will ship in September
2013. This is not a hard prediction to make; while Amazon saved
the 8.9-inch model for last month, the company released the
seven-inch upgrade in September 2012 -- roughly 11 months after
the original Kindle Fire arrived.
Amazon has yet to announce any concrete sales figures for the
Kindle Fire HD, but the company did
reveal
that Cyber Monday turned out to be the "biggest day ever for
Kindle sales worldwide." Kindle tablets and e-readers continue to
be the best-selling devices on Amazon.com, where they are
prominently featured on the front page.
Last week Amazon announced that it had
launched its own
software marketplace in Japan. Square Enix -- which is best known
for the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest franchises -- is one of
the first companies slated to provide software to the store.
While Amazon endured a few declines last month, its shares are
currently enjoying a one-month rise of more than eight percent.
The online retailer grew more than 17 percent over the last six
months. Year-to-date Amazon is up more than 40 percent.
Despite the hoopla for Kindle Fire's success, no one knows
exactly how many units Amazon has sold. The same is true for the
Kindle Fire's chief competitor, Google's (NASDAQ:
GOOG
) Nexus 7 and Nexus 10. The latter is a bit young for a sales
report, but the Nexus 7 was released nearly six months ago.
Thus far, only Asus (which manufactures the Nexus 7) has
indicated how well the tablet is performing. According to the
company, Google is now selling
close to one million units per month
. In 2013, Pacific Crest analyst Evan Wilson estimates that
Google will sell a combined total of
10 million tablets
.
Apple (NASDAQ:
AAPL
), the persistent worldwide leader of the tablet market, has
already sold
100 million iPads
worldwide. The company sold
three million additional tablets
in three days when the iPad Mini and fourth-generation iPad
arrived at retail. During the third quarter, Apple dominated the
Chinese tablet market, selling an estimated
1.8 million tablets
. Samsung, the company's arch rival in the smartphone space, was
not nearly as successful, selling an estimated 91,000
tablets.
Barnes & Noble (NYSE:
BKS
), the apparent third (or fourth) wheel in tablet production, has
decided to follow Amazon and Google's lead and not release any
specific sales figures for its tablets. However, the company did
report that Nook sales
doubled
over Black Friday weekend.
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