Amazon's latest financial numbers for the third quarter of 2011 may not have pleased Wall Street (the numbers missed expectations from analysts) but there was some good news. Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos did say " ... based on what we're seeing with Kindle Fire pre-orders, we're increasing capacity and building millions more than we'd already planned."
As usual, Amazon and Bezos didn't say exactly how many pre-orders for the seven inch tablet it had received since it first announced in late September. While there are third party estimates that claim that the company could get as many as 2.5 million pre-orders for the tablet, trying to get precise sales figures from Amazon about its Kindle line is about as hard as learning info about the next Star Trek movie.
However the hint that Bezos did give in Amazon's press release could lead to some good news for the company down the road. The Kindle Fire, priced at $199, has already generated a lot of talk that in order to really compete with Apple's iPad, you must under cut them on the price.
With the Kindle Fire due out on November 15, we should soon see if Amazon's bold move in the tablet space can work. If it does, Apple might have to rethink its iPad strategy going forward.
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