The Amazon App Store now available to 200 countries, including New Zealand

Todays free app of the day happens to be a pretty good one.

Amazon has today expanded the number of countries that its Amazon App Store is available for, now encompassing 200 countries including our very own New Zealand (the complete list can be found in their developer blog here).

If you're wondering why you would even want their App Store in the first place you may be unaware that they feature a different free app everyday, and also some apps and games launch as temporary exclusives to Amazon. I wouldn't recommend using it as your primary source for apps, that should really remain the province of the Play Store, but it's a great way to try some apps on for size before taking the plunge and purchasing them.

Point your phone browser here to get the Amazon App Store.

Fire Kindles blazing holiday sales

While Amazon famously refuses to provide specific sales numbers for its Kindle range of readers and tablets, it has confirmed that it sold "well over" a million units a week for the whole four week period leading up to Christmas.

Research analyst company Morgan Keegan has predicted around 5 million Kindle Fires were sold which, if correct, would easily make it the largest-selling Android tablet so far. The secret to its success is its price, selling in the 'States for $200 which handily undercuts all other tablets including Apple's iPad and even RIM's heavily discounted PlayBook.

Android's share of the tablet market, initially lackluster, has begun to accelerate with a number of brands and models gaining traction, but ominously for competitors, the Kindle Fire has demonstrated that a good price point will be attractive to the buying public. So much so, in fact, that the market dominant iPad has likely suffered a significant drop in its own market share. Morgan Keegan are expecting the iPad's sales to have been affected by as many as 2 million units by the Fire alone, with their estimate for the December quarter down from 16 million units to 13 million.

The iPad sold 11.2 million units in the previous quarter, which suggests a growth in the December quarter of nearly 2 million, but this rate of growth is significantly slower than previously and notably weak in what has always been Apple's best quarter for all its products. On the other hand, the Android tablet share has been demonstrating an increased growth rate even prior to the Fire's launch. So the figures for the tablet wars are likely to show the iPad as having suffered a dramatic loss of market share when all the Q4 research is reported.

Source: Morgan Keegan

Tablet wars heat up: Fire to grab big market share...

Canaccord Genuity analyst Walkley predicts Amazon's tablet share will grab 15.3% from a standing start in Q4 of 2011, an absolutely stunning result for the company in getting its trojan horse loss-leader in the hands of their clients.


Amazon expects to make up any short term loss on the hardware from the increased sales it'll achieve through use of the device. And given the popularity of the Fire already, it looks to be a dead cert that they're right.


In what is increasingly seen as a blow to Apple's quest for world domination in the tablet sector, the iPad maker's share of the pie continues to shrink, even more rapidly now that the Fire has inflamed the public's imagination (forgive the bad pun), every Android tablet sale being potentially a lost iPad one.

Kindle Fire takes tablet second place in just two weeks!

Practically two years following the launch of the original iPad, a competitor has finally emerged to take on Apple's “post-PC” gizmo. Sales so far suggest the Kindle Fire offers an appealing blend of pricing, marketing and ecosystem, certainly enough to capture tablet buyers not already wedded to Apple's own closed model. 

Amazon is predicted to ship 3.9 million Kindle Fire tablets during Q4 2011, as reported by iSuppli, giving the company 13.8% of global tablet shipments. Samsung will occupy the #3 spot with an estimated 4.8%. Market leader Apple will drop its share from 69.7% to 65.6%, its fourth consecutive drop, according to the tracking company. 

At $US199, Kindle Fire just ignited the Android tablet market. Amazon plans to use its new device to help sell its other inventory, the company’s core business, so it has no hesitation in selling the Fire as a loss-leader, something most other competitors can't mimic.

With every Kindle Fire, US owners receive a free one-month membership to Amazon Prime, free access to movies and TV, and access to the Kindle ebook lending library. It's not clear what additional benefits Fire owners outside the US will be eligible for, but each market will undoubtedly get its own market-specific perks.

Source: iSuppli