Black Friday Deals

Amazon might have a hit on its hands this holiday season, as consumers look into purchasing tablet computers and e-readers seem to prefer the Kindle Fire over other brands. The Kindle Fire is even set to beat the iPad 2 in terms of sales.

Amazon will be releasing the Kindle Fire — along with other Kindle models — this week. But pre-orders are already putting a strain on the supply chain, and the company has had to beef up its capacity. With an estimated 5 million unit sales this 4th quarter of 2011, the Kindle Fire is poised for fast growth, in terms of market share.

In fact, in a poll recently conducted by Retrevo, more consumers are likely to buy a Kindle Fire than an iPad 2. 1,000 survey participants were asked about their purchase preferences. 12% said they planned to buy an Amazon Kindle Fire. 10% said they will be buying an iPad 2. Respondents who already had a tablet computer also displayed the same trend. 27% said they will “upgrade” to a Kindle Fire, while 20% said they will be buying an iPad.

Moreover, when respondents were specifically asked whether they would choose a Kindle Fire over the iPad 2, 44% said yes. Only 12% said they will still stick to the iPad. However, 44% said they still don’t know enough about the Kindle Fire to make a decision.

Retrevo’s Andrew Eisner has written that the Kindle will have to live up to expectations “like battery life, performance, image quality, etc.,” in order to determine whether the Kindle Fire can truly overtake the iPad 2 in terms of popularity. Meanwhile, Apple is still unfazed, believing that the Kindle Fire still results in even more Android fragmentation, which can only be good for Apple’s iPad and iOS platform.