The Kindle Fire in just a couple months has barely edged passed the Samsung Galaxy Tab as the most used Android tablet with 35.7 percent of application user sessions, according to analytics firm Flurry. This is despite the fact that the Kindle Fire only hit the market in mid-November.
The numbers, which are pulled from application sessions among all Android tablets, compare usage in November and January. The Kindle Fire represented just 3 percent of usage in November, when the Tab ruled the roost with 63 percent. In just two months’ time, the Galaxy Tab had slipped to 35.6 percent, a hair below the Fire. Flurry tracks usage in thousands of apps, covering 20 percent of all consumer sessions on more than 90 percent of all Android devices each day.
While the Tab and Fire are essentially tied, the figures give a good sense of how the Fire has come on in since its launch. And it shows how the Fire is helping pump up the overall Android tablet market. Strategy Analytics said there were 10.5 million Android tablets shipped in the fourth quarter, good enough for 39 percent of the market, compared to 29 percent a year earlier.
Flurry said downloads spiked on Amazon App Store in January and usage soared on the Kindle Fire. Total Android tablet sessions in January more than tripled compared to November, said Flurry, with Galaxy Tab sessions increasing by more than 50 percent. The Fire numbers are even more impressive considering the fact that Flurry estimates that the number of active Galaxy Tabs in the market is more than twice that of the Kindle Fire.
The Fire is also driving more paid downloads, according to Flurry. Examining the top 5 paid apps that ranked in the top 10 apps in both the Amazon App Store and Android Market, Flurry found that the Fire drove 2.5 times more paid downloads than the Galaxy Tab. This falls in line with what I’ve heard from Kindle Fire developers.
The Kindle Fire is for real and it’s now becoming the standard bearer for Android, even if it hides the operating system under its own UI. It’s pretty remarkable what Amazon has done in such a short period and shows that its focus on media consumption, low price and simple purchasing makes it a very appealing device in a sea of iPad wannabes.
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