There's a definite buzz around Kindle Fire's performance at the tills, despite Amazon's reluctance to release any official numbers.

Analysts, however, are taking things into their own hands, and their estimates have a positive ring to them.

Indeed, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan has claimed the device is a real contender in the tablet wars, upping his Q4 2011 sales estimate from 5 million units to 6 million.

Zooming past Xoom

"Kindle Fire has staked out an important market position due to its loyal Amazon customer base and attractive (low) device pricing," Rohan said in a note.

"We believe the lower hardware price will correlate with high e-book and video content attach rates."

It's certainly not a figure to be dismissed.

Lifetime sales of Motorola's Xoom have only just passed the 1 million mark, while RIM was forced to slash the RRP of its BlackBerry PlayBook – albeit temporarily – after it amassed sales of 900,000 units in its first three quarters combined.

No soft touch

Naturally, all such tablets are looking to take on iPad, which Apple recently revealed sold 15.43 million units in the company's latest quarter.

Even if Kindle Fire can't compete when it comes to hardware numbers, however, Rohan added that sales of software on the tablet could "drive real upside in its North American media segment revenues".

"From a cost perspective, the shift to digital delivery of content could help Amazon avoid costly free shipping subsidies," he concluded.

"Hence, we believe there is a great deal more to the Kindle device strategy than most have discounted."

[source: All Things D]