Amazon Opens Fire, Sells Nearly 100,000 Tablets on Day One

Amazon took a whopping 95,000 pre-orders for its new Kindle Fire tablet in its first day on sale, according to a digital marketing firm.

That number falls well short of the 300,000 first-generation iPads sold in a day, however. But analysts are confident of a strong holiday season for Amazon’s new entrant, which will begin shipping on November 15.

Apple's iPad 2, the cheapest model of which costs $499, is the dominate player. The iPad accounts for three out of every four tablets sold. Other tablets make up a small percentage of the market, including the Motorola Xoom ($499 for the Wi-Fi only version); the Blackberry PlayBook (starting at $499); and CherryPad's CherryPal ($190).

The Kindle Fire, which was unveiled last Wednesday, is the first tablet that's expected to be a formidable competitor to the iPad 2. Forrester Research predicts Amazon could sell 3 million units by year's end. Meanwhile, Apple has sold nearly 29 million since it released the first one in April 2010.

But Amazon's tablet could do more than that. The Kindle Fire's ability to show e-books, surf the Web, stream movies and TV shows and support apps is expected to drive sales of Amazon's digital content. As such, the online retail giant is willing to take a $10 loss on each unit sold, according to IHS iSuppli estimates, suggesting that the e-commerce company is taking a financial hit upfront to get the device into as many hands as possible.

Pre-sales of Amazon's three other e-ink Kindles launched this week, the $70 original Kindle, $99 Kindle Touch, and $149 Kindle Touch 3G totaled approximately $25,000.

Comparing Apples and Amazon's Kindal Fire: iPad Vs. Kindle

When the smoke cleared this week, Amazon revealed its Fire.
The price alone on Amazon.com's new Kindle Fire tablet computer is enough to warm the buying public's response: an eye-popping price tag of just $199. That's without a two-year contract, ads or any other subsidizing gimmick.

Still, even that low price may be a bit much for what you get in return.

As with any tablet, the Fire is going up against the mighty iPad 2, and everyone is asking for a comparison of the two. I can tell you right now, the Fire doesn't begin to come close to being an iPad-killer.
For example, the hardware on the Fire is lacking. It has a dual-core processor, which is nice. However, the screen is only 7 inches, it has a mere 8 gigabytes of storage and there are no cameras or microphones. Battery life is 8 hours. Additionally, there is no 3G version, only Wi-Fi.

Even when comparing only to iPad 2's Wi-Fi version, the Apple product offers so much more: a 9.7-inch screen, a minimum of 16GB of storage, two cameras and a microphone, for starters. Battery life is slightly better at 8.5 hours. When the iPad 3 debuts, it will widen the hardware gap even more.