A recent poll of over 2,000 app developers showed that Amazon’s newest Kindle Fire is the second most popular platform to develop apps for, right behind the Apple iPad. The overall interest in developing apps for the Kindle Fire is similar to that of the iPad when it launched in 2010. Experts are talking about the Kindle Fire being the only real competition for the Apple iPad. The Android powered tablet was shipped to retailers and those with pre-orders on Monday of this week, which is one day sooner than the company planned.
Since the economy is forcing consumers to watch what they spend, the $199 price tag on the Kindle Fire is very inviting. The overall cost of the Android tablet is about 60 percent less than the Apple iPad, representing major savings for the consumer. Paired with the Amazon Prime membership for $79 per year and the Kindle Fire users can save on Amazon.com shipments all year long as well. The Kindle Fire came out on top as the favored Android based tablet to develop apps for with almost 50 percent of the developers choosing that tablet. That is just 2 percent higher than those that chose the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The Motorola XOOM was in third with 37 percent and the Barnes and Noble Nook took only 24 percent of the vote. The iPad leads with almost 90 percent of the vote in the overall tablet category.
By the Amazon Kindle Fire for only $199.
Android tablets accounted for about 66 percent as a group compared to when the iPad launched with about 53 percent of the vote then. The iPad was essentially the only tablet on the market at the time, so developers didn’t have much choice in the matter. Worldwide numbers put the iPad on top, Galaxy Tab next, followed by the Kindle Fire with about 43 percent of the vote.
Developers have plenty of reasons to develop for the Kindle Fire and one of them being that the low cost will drive sales. Other reasons included were Amazon’s content library, app store, e-commerce integration and target demographic. Developers seek out the people and when a tablet is low cost, more people will buy it. Low cost tablets are likely to create a market segment for multi-tablet homes. Two factors that bother developers are the lack of geo-location and camera on the Kindle Fire.
