Kindle Fire owners named keenest Android app users
Stats show tablet's usage storming ahead
Amazon's Kindle Fire has grabbed more than a third of the overall Android tablet usage activity in less than three months on sale.
So suggests Flurry, a maker of software usage analysis code built, the company claims, into "tens of thousands of Android apps, including many of the most popular" and able to give a statistically significant picture of the Android app biz as a whole.
Flurry's data suggests that in November 2011, the month the Kindle Fire shipped, the Amazon tablet accounted for around three per cent of app launches.
But by January 2012 the Kindle's share of Android app usage had rocketed to 35.7 per cent.
Source: Flurry
That puts it on an effectively equal footing with the Samsung Galaxy Tab family. The latter's January 2012 app activity share is 35.6 per cent.
Back in the previous November, Samsung had a commanding 63 per cent of app usage. But it's not the only one to lose share to Amazon: Asus' Eee Pad Transformer and Acer's Iconia Tab family all saw their shares squeezed after the Amazon advent.
The total number of Android tablet app usage sessions in January 2012 was more than three times the November 2011 figure. Even the Galaxy Tab, despite a declining share of app launches, still saw the total number of app launches rise 50 per cent between those two months.
Of course, app launches do not equate to tablet ownership, but the Flurry figures show that Kindle Fires acquired over the Christmas period are being used - and used as much as older tablets with bigger installed bases. The first Galaxy Tab, for instance, shipped a year ahead of the Kindle Fire and has a much larger installed base.
Flurry also found that Kindle Fire owners are happier to pay to download apps than Galaxy Tab owners. "We found that the Kindle Fire drove over 2.5 times more paid downloads to consumers than the Samsung Galaxy Tab," said Flurry blogger Peter Farago. ®
COMMENTS
Walled gardens ... we were doing *so* well...
At the point where the web is really opening up to all devices, to a set of standards everyone seems to be paying attention to...
... what do we see happening?
Walled gardens.
It's the Apple business model which has bought us here, the fantastic success they've had with the iPod, the iPhone and now the iPad has other companies clamouring for a slice of the pie.
The Kindle Fire is simply a device to consume on - a micro payment device.
As is the iPod, the iPhone & the iPad.
The idea of data being platform independent has turned on it's head once again.
And the idea of the consumer buying all the content they've already bought on every other platform...
Cynical? Yep, big time.
Razor blade holders, razor blades - that's the name of the game.
But hey, that's fine - millions are happy with that model, so be it.
For me, I'd get a kindle if it was successfully rooted and replaced with stock standard android.
Do you think there's a market...
for someone to buy Fires, root them, and re-sell with a small markup? Similar to how you (used to?) get people with "SIM unlocking" stands at the market?
@ JDX
Flurry made these estimates based on the belief that its products are in "tens of thousands of Android apps" and that "it tracks over 20% of all consumer sessions on more than 90% of all Android devices each day" - http://blog.flurry.com/bid/81151/Amazon-Lights-the-Android-World-on-Fire
The above link is worth a quick read - it also contrasts the Android App Store with Amazon's.
Kindle Fire - vapourware in the UK
It's very puzzling that Amazon haven't even bothered to set either a UK price or UK release date for Kindle Fire yet. If it sold for 127 quid in the UK ($199 after currency conversion), it would sell like hot cakes here too, but I'm afraid it won't. The likely price is 199 quid and that would be a bit steep for a 7" tablet, IMHO (though a good price for a 10" one).
I think the first thing I'd do with a Kindle Fire would be put CyanogenMod 9 on it to get the full Android 4 experience on it - why you'd want to crippled by Amazon's UI/market is anyone's guess. Sadly, at its likely 199 quid price, I'll be sticking with my HP TouchPad (116 quid, 8.9" display, dual boots webOS and Android 4).
Did the Nook not sell very well? I thought it would have at least made it out of that "other" group.
