The Kindle Fire is Already making BIG Ripples

The Kindle Fire outsold all expectations

Yesterday, I read a great article over at GigaOM about how the Kindle Fire has become “The Next Big Haven for Developers.” (Check it out here). Apparently, Amazon’s Appstore (with 1-click purchasing) as well as the number of Kindle Fire devices sold (said to be over 5M), have made the Kindle Fire the targeted device of choice for Android development. I think this is great news, long has the 7″ form factor been ignored, and Android been the “ugly sister” of development. Despite the 600k+ activations a day, many Android users are the “value” type. They don’t wish to spend money on apps, and thus, do not. However, Amazon’s Appstore requires a credit card to download anything (free or not) so users find themselves buying a little more.

As an owner of a Samsung Galaxy Tab, I could not be happier about this. It is high time that the 7″ market gets some love. The sales of the Kindle Fire show that the public wants Android Tablets – they just want them to be affordable. The $200 price mark was crushed by the $99 HP Touchpad (which sold out ridiculously quickly) and Amazon is making tablets affordable. I believe the success of the Kindle Fire will (pun intended) light a fire under quite a few device manufacturers.

Amazon is succeeding in their second manufacturing foray

What are the other repercussions of the success of the Amazon Fire? I would foresee that they get a big jump in Amazon Prime users. I’ve been using Amazon Prime Instant Video on my Roku for the past two weeks and have been quite impressed with the service. It’s rumored that Amazon will be releasing a 10″ tablet in the future. Whether or not they know it, the rest of the tablet manufacturers have been put on notice – Amazon will be a player in this market. I expect that the Kindle Fire will continue to sell through the holiday season, and might even end up with 10M sales by the end of the year.