Amazon Kindle Fire on fire
According to new comScore data1, the Amazon Kindle Fire has doubled its share in the tablet market in the past two months from 29.4 percent share in December 2011 (just a month after its debut) to 54.4 percent share in February 2012. ComScore asserts that the Kindle Fire is already establishing itself as the leading Android tablet by a wide margin.
The second most popular Android tablet is the Samsung Galaxy Tab with a market share of 15.4 percent in February, followed by the Motorola Xoom with 7.0 percent share, and the Asus Transformer (which is currently under fire for poor quality) and Toshiba AT100 rounding out the top five with 6.3 percent and 5.7 percent market share, respectively:
Size matters
Tablet adoption in America continues to rise, which comScore notes is in part due to price and feature preferences introduced to the market, with screen size as the most obvious differentiator between tablet devices. The Apple iPad is 10″ while the Sony S1 is 9″ and the Amazon Kindle Fire is 7″ with the newly discontinued2 5″ Dell Streak.
According to comScore, “Analysis of page view consumption by screen size found a strong positive association between screen size and content consumption. Specifically, 10″ tablets have a 39-percent higher consumption rate than 7″ tablets and a 58-percent higher rate than 5″ tablets.”
Advantages of tablets
Tablet purchases in general are rising rapidly, boosted by strong sales during the Christmas holiday season. From grade schools to universities, educational institutions are also beginning to use tablets in instruction and with students. Meanwhile, laptop and smartphone owners are frequently adding a tablet to their repertoire, owning multiple devices, particularly for mobile use. Tablets are booming, there is no question.
But the technology is not without flaws. Although the Amazon Kindle Fire now owns just over half of the market, there are several problems3 ranging from poor sound quality to the problem of “fat fingers” in that items can be difficult to navigate unless touched in the smallest of areas, just a few pixels wide. The Kindle Fire screen is also said to be much more prone to breakage than a reader like the Nook.
Regardless of problems with any technology, the adoption rates are extremely high and rising, and regarding Android tablets, the Kindle Fire is by far the most popular of them all.
