Internal sales numbers show Kindle Fire could outsell iPad at launch

Amazon's newly announced Kindle Fire has the potential to be a huge success by combining the strength of Amazon's Kindle brand with the magical price of $199. Some recently leaked internal sales numbers show that tablet could be even bigger than expected with the potential to outsell iPad at launch.

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Cult of Android reportedly has an internal source at Amazon that provided screen shots of Amazon's internal inventory tracking system called Alaska (Availability Lookup and SKU Aggregator). The screen shot shows a total of 254,074 total orders for the Kindle Fire. That amounts to about 50,000 orders per day or 2,000 an hour.

The Kindle Fire doesn't actually release until November 15th so all of the current orders are preorders. If this preorder rate continues the tablet has the ability to rack up 2.5 million preorders before it even goes on sale.

For comparison purposes the original iPad sold 300,000 units on its release date, April 3, 2010. That sale number included all preorders for the device. The iPad 2 managed to rack up 2.5 million units sold in it's first month of sales. If the Kindle Fire continues down the path it is on it could easily outsell the iPad 2 in its first month.

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The more interesting comparison numbers are those of other Android tablets. The Motorola Xoom only sold 100,00 units in its first month and a half of sales. The BlackBerry PlayBook only has an estimated 250,000 units sold in the first month. That number was likely the driving reason for the PlayBook being heavily discounted at retailers following the announcement of the Kindle Fire.

It seems very clear that Amazon's goal with the Kindle Fire is not to compete directly with the iPad. The idea is that the tablet market has a kind of split personality, with some users wanted a high end device that does everything and other users simply want a functional tablet that hooks into services they use all the time. The Fire is looking to capitalize on the people who want something easy, inexpensive, and largely "good enough."

If the Kindle Fire sells as well as it is on track to it could put some pressure on other Android tablet makers as well as Barnes and Nobel, makers of the Nook and Nook Color. More price drops and smaller, less expensive devices could be on the horizon. Alternatively tablet makers could decide there isn't a way to compete in a market bookended by Amazon and Apple. Time will tell what this device does to the overall tablet market.

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