Kindle Fire burns iPad sales

iPad Sales estimates in the month of December dropped from 16 million to 13 million units where the Kindle sold 4 to 5 million units during the holiday season. As a result, the Kindle Fire took away around 1 to 2 million iPad sales. In fact, there's enough of an impact on the iPad's dominant market position to cause a spate of speculation about the imminent release of $299 iPad. Whether that happens is, of course, sheer speculation, but analysts seem to think that Apple needs to respond more directly to the Kindle Fire. A lot of the Kindle Fire's success is due to its $199 price. Apple's least expensive iPad is $499. Although it's smaller (7-inch screen, versus iPad's 9.7-inch screen), the Kindle Fire offers a lot for $199, including a good color screen, a dual-core processor, an Android operating system, and basic apps like a browser, unified e-mail, and Netflix movie streaming, plus access to all of Amazon's content.