Kindle Fire Now Best-Seller: Will Amazon Unveil More Devices?
Amazon.com sold more than a million Kindle products this holiday season according to a statement released by the company on Thursday. Although the company has been vague about the exact numbers, Amazon said its three Kindle products, the Kindle Touch, the regular Kindle and its latest tablet the Kindle Fire occupied the top three spots on its bestseller list.
According to Amazon the new Kindle Fire tablet has been the bestselling, most gifted and most wished for product on Amazon since its debut 13 weeks ago. Kindle sales have also been strong in England, Germany, France, Spain and Italy during the holidays.
"We are grateful to our customers worldwide for making this the best holiday ever for Kindle," Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com's founder and CEO said in a statement. "And in a huge milestone for independent publishing, we'd also like to congratulate Darcie Chan, the author of 'The Mill River Recluse,' and Chris Culver, the author of 'The Abbey,' for writing two of the bestselling Kindle books of the year."
With Amazon's success in the tablet market, what's next for the online retailer next year? A report from brokerage firm Citigroup says that the company will launch its own smartphone. Citigroup points to deals between Amazon and Foxconn, makers of phone components as evidence that consumers will see an Amazon smartphone next year.
Citigroup thinks that the so-called Kindle phone is the next logical step for Amazon to make. The smartphone would be similar to the Kindle Fire and would allow users to access Amazon's online services. If Amazon can produce a smartphone that will be similarly priced as the Kindle Fire, its smartphone can attract the same consumers and make its foray into smartphones a success.
"With the clear success of the Kindle e-Reader over the past three years, and Kindle Fire possibly succeeding in the low-priced tablet market, we view this as the next logical step for Amazon. We continue to believe Amazon has set its eyes on the mobile (and tablet) media and product consumption frontier," the brokerage firm wrote in its report.
Aside from a smartphone, Amazon could follow-up the success of Kindle Fire with a better version of the Kindle Fire in 2012. The current Kindle Fire has been hounded with numerous complaints about its touchscreen and overall design. Amazon even released a software update that is supposed to fix some of those flaws. With a second-generation Kindle Fire, Amazon could finally prove that it's capable of learning from the mistakes of the current Kindle Fire and produce a tablet that is capable of competing directly with Apple's iPad.