Amazon Building Millions More Kindle Fires to Meet Huge Demand

Amazon is reported to be building millions more Kindle Fire tablets because of the huge demand.

In the three weeks since launch, orders for electronic ink Kindles are double the previous launch, said Jeff Bezos, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Amazon.com, And based on what we're seeing with Kindle Fire pre-orders, we're increasing capacity and building millions more than we'd already planned.

Amazon, which is known for its aggressive pricing strategy, didn't disappoint when setting a value on its Kindle Fire. The market was expecting a price in the region of $250. At $199, the 7-inch Android-based tablet is priced 60 per cent below its competitors.

In its report announcing the financial results for the third quarter ending Sept. 30, Amazon said Sept. 28 was the biggest order day ever for the Kindle. That was the day Amazon introduced the Kindle Fire for $199, the Kindle Touch 3G for $149, the Kindle Touch for $99 and the all new Kindle for only $79.

Content is an area where Amazon will hold an advantage, with the device capable of leveraging Amazon's recent cloud drive storage capability. The Amazon Kindle Fire will come with a 30-day free trial of Amazon Prime and extra content, like the capacity to stream movies.

The company said net sales increased 44 per cent to $10.88 billion in the third quarter, compared with $7.56 billion in the third quarter of 2010. However, Amazon reports that net income actually decreased by 73 per cent to $63 million in the third quarter, compared with a net income of $231 million in the third quarter of 2010.

The Kindle Fire could be an excellent alternative to the iPad for price-conscious consumers and investors in Amazon will be hoping it forges a new path in the market for Android-based tablets, helping the company to second position (next only to Apple) in terms of market share, in the coming quarter.

Amazon is expecting to see fourth-quarter net sales between $16.45 billion and $18.65 billion or to grow between 27 per cent and 44 per cent, compared with the fourth quarter of 2010.