Recently there was a piece published on the web saying that the Kindle Fire had a decisive role in pushing Android to a tablet market share of 39%, to the loss of the iPad, that still reigns the segment. Now, we have some figures from Flurry, an analytics company that tracks tens of thousands of Android applications. They crunched the numbers on Android tablet usage and found that the Amazon Kindle Fire is getting closer to being the number one Android tablet, behind the Samsung Galaxy Tab.
In November the Galaxy Tab (no model was mentioned here) took up 63% of the Android tablet market, as far as applications tracked by Flurry are concerned. Meanwhile, the Kindle Fire only reached 3% in the first month on the market and moving on to the new year we uncover a spectacular growth to 36%, identical to the new share of the Galaxy Tab. So, it appears that the two are tied at the top. Flurry’s way of collecting data doesn’t guarantee that we get a 100% realistic image of the market share, but it’s a pretty good indication of what’s happening.
Kindle Fire’s link to the Amazon online content has brought a greater ratio of paid downloads and better engagement with the slate. Anyway, one thing’s for sure: the Amazon tablet is a big success, mostly because of the $200 price tag and the user-friendly experience with the device. Of course, some people are still unhappy with the lack of a camera, GPS, volume buttons, 3G or more control over the Android experience, but Amazon really wanted to leave its mark on the product here. Let’s see if someone can strip the title of biggest Android slate market share owner from Amazon this year…
