Kindle Fire leads the Android tablet race, still a far cry from iPad

26.8 million tablets were sold in the last three months of 2011. These three months include Christmas and also the release of Amazon’s Kindle Fire. Apple’s iPad still dominated the market by selling 15.4 million iPads. Android tablets, contrary to what many people thought, have grabbed a bigger share of 39% (up from 29% share in Q4 2010). The biggest reason isn’t a new found love for Android but the launch of $199 Kindle Fire. As per some estimates, 6 million Kindle Fire’s were sold.

Amazon Kindle Fire has grabbed a market share of 36% within Android tablets and brought down Samsung Galaxy Tab’s Android tablet market share to 36% in January 2012 from 63% in November 2011.

Flurry tracks the consumer sessions on these tablets. As per Flurry it tracks more than 90% of all Android devices every day to arrive at the conclusions shown above. The heavy tilt towards Kindle Fire during the holiday season might be because Flurry has tracked almost all of the Kindle Fire devices and hasn’t tracked the Galaxy Tab and other Android tablets. Or other Android tablets might no have been used during the holiday season. These kind of reasons still linger but there’s no denying the fact that Kindle Fire has lit a fire to the Android tablets. All the more reason why Google needs its own tablet.

The success of Kindle Fire tells three things : You don’t need the latest and greatest hardware to make a dent in the tablet universe. However you need an app ecosystem and wholesome experience to make a dent. And yes, you need to get the pricing right too.

How did so many tablets launched one after the another miss these three key ingredients? No wonder quite a few have quit making Android tablets.

Is Kindle Fire making a dent in the tablet universe?

When it comes to tablets there are two worlds : the Tablet world and the Android tablet world. Kindle Fire is leading the Android tablet world and iPad is the clear leader of the tablet world. Kindle Fire and iPad operate in two different price ranges and also target different segments.

Apple has sold 15.4 million iPads in the last quarter of 2011. This is a 111% increase from the same quarter previous year, when Kindle Fire didn’t even exist. The overall tablet pie is increasing though it looks like iPad’s share is coming down, Apple is actually selling more iPads than ever. Kindle Fire is grabbing a share of the increased tablet pie and acquiring new customers. These customers aren’t necessarily iPad buyers.