Kindle Fire is not an iPad Killer, it's not even a full fledged tablet, but the device has surely garnered tremendous interest from industry
experts and general public. Analysts are now predicting that Amazon is very well on its way to sell over 5 million tablets in the fourth quarter of the year. The tablet will officially be available from November 15th of this year. According to JP Morgan, Amazon is expected to sell between 4.5 million and 5 million units of this tablet in the current quarter of the year.
However, the rosy prediction does not mean that it is all hunky dory for Amazon. First off, not all analysts are very optimistic about the tablet. Morgan Stanley has provided rather tame projections for the tablet turnover. It predicted that Amazon may sell about 2.8 million tablets in the last quarter of year 2011. Though, if we look at the pre-order figures, then the projection seems to be bit too stingy. Kindle Fire raked in 95,000 orders on the first day of its pre-orders.
Another problem faced by Amazon is related to the tight margins of the tablet. Though, there is no official word on it yet, but Amazon seems to be promoting the tablet as a loss leader, that is it is selling the tablet at below its production cost. Though, Amazon may later be monetizing the situation by selling content, but currently, the tablet is straining its bottom line. For its latest concluded quarter, Amazon showed higher sales but lower profits. However, we are pretty sure that Jeff Bezos, who is widely touted as the next Steve Jobs, has some good arrows in his quiver.