Amazon's Tablet Market Share Drops, According To IDC Data
May 03 2012 - 1:56PM
Dow Jones News
Amazon.com Inc.'s (AMZN) Kindle Fire tablet, unveiled to much
fanfare late last year, saw its share of the global market plummet
in the first quarter according to data published Thursday.
Research firm IDC said Amazon swiftly grabbed a 16.8% share of
the tablet market with the Kindle Fire after it went on sale in
November of last year, during the holiday shopping season. But that
share dwindled to just over 4% in the first quarter, IDC said.
The Kindle Fire was designed as a richer variation of Amazon's
Kindle line of e-book readers, with access to movies, music and
other media. Amazon set a $199 price tag for the device,
significantly lower than the cheapest available iPad tablet from
Apple Inc. (AAPL).
Amazon does not disclose specific sales figures for its Kindle
devices.
An Amazon spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for
comment.
When Amazon released its first-quarter earnings last week, Chief
Financial Officer Tom Szkutak said the company was "pleased with
the growth" in Kindle Fire adoption, and with the increased buying
of content through the devices.
The Seattle-based online retail giant doesn't yet sell the
Kindle Fire in overseas markets. Apple does sell its iPad
overseas.
IDC said Thursday Apple increased its share of the worldwide
tablet market to 68% in the first quarter, from 54.7% in the prior
period. Apple released the newsest version of the iPad during that
period.
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (SSNHY, 005930.SE) moved ahead of
Amazon into the number-two position in terms of global tablet
market share in the first quarter, IDC said. Samsung sells the
Galaxy Tab tablet.
Shares of Amazon were down 0.3% at $229.52 in afternoon
trading.
-By John Letzing, Dow Jones Newswires; 415-765-8230;
john.letzing@dowjones.com
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