Report: Amazon Kindle Fire shipments nearing 4 million units
Amazon is currently shipping between 3 and 4 million Kindle Fire units, according to a new report from DigiTimes.
Although Quanta Computer, the company responsible for manufacturing the $199 Android tablet, has declined to comment, DigiTimes is standing by this finding based on reports from "industry watchers."
These "watchers" also predict that Wintek, another company heavily involved with the production of the Kindle Fire, will ship about 3 to 3.5 million touch panels for the Kindle Fire before January.
Furthermore, Amazon is reportedly planning to hit the 5 million unit mark by the end of December or at least early January 2012.
However, it should be clarified that just because Amazon has supposedly shipped millions of Kindle Fire -- which is definitely a laudable feat compared to most other hyped, non-iPad tablets this year -- that does not mean that Amazon has actually sold this amount.
Nevertheless, if Amazon is ramping up production to these levels, then there must certainly be some kind of demand for them -- or at least one would hope. Regardless of how "cheap" these tablets are to make and sell in comparison to the iPad and other Android tablets that have started selling at $499, that would still be a pretty big hole to fill if Amazon ordered that massive quantity and couldn't sell them after all.
To support Amazon's reported investment, a recent survey from Retrevo.com found that more current and non-current tablet owners replied that they are planning to buy a Kindle Fire over an iPad during the 2011 holiday season.
Furthermore, Retrevo also posited that the Kindle Fire might be the most manly gift for the holidays as well.
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