Amazon increases Kindle Fire orders to five million in the US

INTERNET DEPARTMENT STORE Amazon has apparently increased order numbers of its Kindle Fire Tablet to five million units in the US, following strong pre-orders for the device.

According to Techcrunch, the number is an increase of one million from the four million Amazon had previously expected to sell before the end of 2011. The tablet will start shipping next Tuesday, 15 November.

This is despite no announcement from the bookseller regarding a launch date, or indeed pricing, for the Kindle Fire tablet in the UK. At this rate, it seems we might be lucky to get the device before the all important Christmas period, not to mention the Amazon Appstore that we are also waiting for here in Blighty.

Last month, analysts estimated that pre-orders for Amazon's Kindle Fire tablet had topped 95,000 on the first day the device was made available. This compared to the 300,000 that Apple reported for first day sales of its Ipad.

Amazon announced the launch of the $199 Kindle Fire on 28 September and it made the device available for pre-order immediately on its web site.

The Kindle Fire - a 7in IPS ultra-wide display, dual-core processor tablet - weighs 14.6oz and runs a customised version of Android. All of the content on the device is backed up in the cloud so users can delete things when they want. Content available will include 100,000 movies and TV shows, a million songs, apps from the Amazon Appstore and magazines.

When it launched the Kindle Fire, Amazon also launched a $79 Kindle that is not a touchscreen device and is 30 per cent lighter than the original Kindle at 5.98oz. It costs a more pricey £89 in the UK, so we are guessing that the Kindle Fire will cost more than £199 when it eventually launches here. µ