Flurry: Amazon's Kindle Fire scorches rivals on Android app usage

Less than three months after its retail release, Amazon.com's Kindle Fire already leads rival Android-powered tablets in terms of end user application sessions, according to data issued by app analytics firm Flurry.

Click here to view the charts from this report.

At the time of the Kindle Fire's mid-November launch, Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Tab generated 63 percent of all Android tablet app sessions, far ahead of the Asus Transformer at 13 percent and the Acer Iconia Tab at 11 percent. As of January 2012, the Kindle Fire now represents 35.7 percent of app sessions, edging past the Galaxy Tab at 35.6 percent. Flurry adds that total Android tablet sessions in January more than tripled compared November, with Galaxy Tab sessions surging by more than 50 percent.

Amazon is also leveraging its digital retail prowess to fuel demand in premium Android app downloads. The Kindle Fire drives 2.53 times the number of paid app downloads of the Galaxy Tab, Flurry notes--upon launching the Kindle Fire, consumers must link to their existing Amazon account or enter a credit card number, meaning 100 percent of its userbase is set up for app purchases.   

"Amazon's launch of Kindle Fire had more in common with an Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)-style launch than it did with aligning with the Android system," writes Flurry vice president of marketing Peter Farago on the firm's blog. "To date, the Android world has focused on marketing the operating system and the ‘power' of the devices, with quality of content and the consumer experience subordinated in priority. With Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) managing the Android Market, which lacks content control and a seamless commerce experience, inertia pushes those developers who choose to build for the platform toward advertising models. Developers who monetize through other means tend to make less on the platform. To ensure that it could take full advantage of its unique digital store prowess, Amazon forked the Android operating system."

The Kindle Fire is priced at $199, compared to $499 for Apple's cheapest iPad. According to Amazon.com, the Kindle Fire is the most successful product the digital retailer has ever introduced, with consumers purchasing more than a million each week since launch.

Worldwide tablet shipments reached 27 million units during the fourth quarter of 2011, according to research issued last week by consulting firm Strategy Analytics. While Apple's iOS mobile operating system continues to trounce the competition at 58 percent global tablet market share, Android is closing the gap and now represents a record 39 percent of the market, up from 29 percent a year earlier.

For more:
- read this Flurry Blog entry

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