Amazon’s Kindle Fire dips back below 4% market share

kindlefire

Maybe the Kindle Fire really is the “fruitcake of tablets.” Worldwide market share for Amazon’s family of tablets dropped to 3.7 percent in the first quarter, according to new data from the IDC research firm, which says the Kindle Fire was the “victim of a highly seasonal product cycle.” In other words, lots of people are… Read More…

CHART: Tablet market soaring, now almost two-thirds the size of PC market

ipadmini

The market for tablets is continuing to climb dramatically, reaching 49.2 million units shipped worldwide in the first quarter, up from 20.3 million units a year earlier, according to an IDC research report issued today. That’s in sharp contrast with the market for traditional computers. An earlier report by IDC said that PC shipments declined… Read More…

Kindle Fire not far behind iPad in owner satisfaction, thanks to lower expectations

Will Kindle's soon have airbags to prevent cracked screens?

When you buy a Hyundai, you’re going to be a lot more forgiving than when you buy a Lexus. Apparently the same goes for the tablet market. A new study of tablet owner satisfaction, published today by J.D. Power and Associates, shows Apple’s iPad leading the pack for the second straight year with high ratings… Read More…

Microsoft releases Xbox SmartGlass for Kindle Fire

smartglass

Microsoft debuted its Xbox SmartGlass app for Kindle Fire and Kindle Fire HD this morning, giving Xbox 360 users with one of the Amazon tablets a new way to interact with their living room consoles. SmartGlass is Microsoft’s “second screen” experience, offering the ability to use a tablet or phone to enter text, select content,… Read More…

Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ LTE coming to AT&T stores for $249 with two-year contract

kindlefirehdx

Amazon’s biggest Kindle is coming to AT&T stores later this week on April 5 and buyers can get $150 off the 4G 32GB LTE version (normally $399) with an optional two-year data plan contract. A $249 price tag is the lowest we’ve seen for the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD with 4G. This announcement comes a… Read More…

Amazon pokes at iPad price, display in Kindle Fire HD ad

comparison

Amazon is challenging one of the iPad’s signature features, its Retina display, in a new video ad that aims to convince tablet buyers to take a closer look at Amazon’s considerably less expensive 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD. The video, above, is the latest swipe from Amazon at the Apple tablet, following up on the Seattle company’s… Read More…

Amazon bigger than Microsoft? What to watch in 2013 from Jeff Bezos & Co.

kindlefire

How’s this for a milestone in the making? Amazon is on a trajectory to become larger than Microsoft in 2013, at least in terms of employees. Yes, their businesses are different. Amazon is an online retailer, at heart, and employs a lot of people in distribution centers. But even considering that, Amazon’s employee growth over… Read More…

Former Kindle ad guru sues Amazon over termination, alleges internal retaliation

kindleads

A former Amazon employee is suing the company over his termination, alleging that he was let go in retaliation for going over his manager’s head to bring internal attention to a “latency issue” that he believed would have “seriously jeopardized” the ad platform launch for the new Kindle Fire tablets this past fall. The suit… Read More…

The tablet is killing the ebook reader: Study says shipments to fall 36% this year

kindletouch

Worldwide shipments of dedicated ebook readers such as the E-Ink Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook will fall by 36 percent to 14.9 million units this year, and plummet to just 7.1 million units by 2016. That’s the word this morning from industry researcher IHS, which blames the rise of multipurpose tablets such as… Read More…

Tablet prediction: Microsoft to steal some thunder from Android and iPad by 2016

surfacespoof

The latest tablet predictions from the IDC research firm is out and here’s the lowdown: Android is gaining traction while Apple is not, Windows will steal future market share and tablets are more popular than ever. IDC credits strong competition and more consumer buying options for a 2012 forecast of the worldwide tablet market to… Read More…