Amazon raises Kindle Fire order to 5 million units in U.S.

By Rick Marshall November 10, 2011

The launch of Amazon’s Kindle Fire appears to be going well, as the company recently raised its order for the tablet e-reader to 5 million units in the U.S.

According to TechCrunch, Amazon’s decision to up the order was a product of good pre-order numbers for the Kindle Fire, which will arrive on shelves November 15.

Given that this is still well ahead of the holiday rush, early estimates of the tablet’s 2011 sales that were originally seen as optimistic could actually pan out before the year is over. In fact, the increased order from Kindle Fire manufacturers makes it likely that Amazon’s tablet will slide into the second-place spot in the market — still a far cry from iPad sales, but impressive all the same.

The announcement of Amazon’s increased order also comes in the wake of Barnes & Noble unveiling their own tablet e-reader, the Nook Tablet. The Nook Tablet will arrive on shelves just a day after the Kindle Fire.

Last week, we compared the specs of the two tablets, which are likely to be big sellers this holiday season.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Amazon

Former Digital Trends Contributor

A veteran journalist with more than two decades of experience covering local and national news, arts and entertainment, and…

Mobile

Amazon’s new Kindle Scribe turns the e-reader into the ultimate notepad

Amazon Kindle Scribe.

Just over a week ago, Amazon added four new members to its Fire family of budget tablets. And today, during its Devices and Services event, Amazon announced it is bringing some of the tablet fun to its Kindle e-reader portfolio. And by tablet fun, we mean the ability to draw gibberish on the screen with a stylus.

If you've ever looked longingly at the reMArkable 2 paper tablet and wished that the stylus input somehow made it to a Kindle, your prayers have been answered. Say hello to the Kindle Scribe, Amazon's next-gen e-book reader that will let you scribble with a stylus.

Mobile

Amazon’s new Fire HD 8 tablets run faster, last longer, and start at $100

amazon fire hd 8 2022 tablet news plus

Amazon has announced four new tablets in the company's Fire 8 line that, while certainly having their limitations, seem to be welcome upgrades from previous iterations. The announcement comes with the usual semi-annual upgrades: the 2022 versions of the Fire HD 8 and Fire HD 8 Kids, with both devices also launching next to more powerful versions of themselves, the Fire HD 8 Plus and the Fire HD 8 Kids Pro, respectively.

The Fire HD 8 and 8 Plus don't have jaw-dropping specs but do feature a handful of improvements from previous iterations. According to Amazon, they both run 30% faster than the most recent Fire 8 releases, thanks to Amazon's improved hexa-core processor. The 2022 Fire HD 8 features 2GB RAM, the same as the previous iteration, but the 8 Plus sports 3GB RAM.

Mobile

Amazon’s cheapest Kindle finally supports USB-C and dark mode

Amazon's new Kindle for 2022 comes with a dark mode.

Amazon's Kindle is getting even better this week with a new model that introduces a new display, a more compact design, and support for USB-C. It's nothing that'll replace your Kindle Oasis, but if you want a Kindle while spending as little as possible, there's a lot to like with the new baseline option.

This 2022 Kindle release will see the baseline Kindle pick up a high-resolution display that's capable of dark mode, support for USB-C, 16GB of storage, and extended battery life with up to six weeks on a single charge. The Kids edition of the tablet will, like other Kids edition tablets, comes with a kid-friendly cover and a free subscription to Amazon's Kids+ service.