Kindle Fire Fires Up Tablet Competition to iPad along with Samsung Galaxy Tab

Whoa, watch out iPad the Amazon Fire is hitting the market and firing up consumer interest.  There is even a little interest in the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

In planned tablet buying 65% chose the Apple iPad, 22% said the Amazon Kindle Fire and 4% picked the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

The Kindle Fire is the first mainstream tablet to go below $200. The Amazon Kindle Fire sells for $199  from Amazon.com and other retailers.

A recent ChangeWave study showed  an extraordinary level of initial demand for the Amazon Kindle tablet, with 2% of respondents having already preordered the device and 5% saying they’re Very Likely to buy it. Another 12% say they’re Somewhat Likely.

The primary focus of the ChangeWave survey was on future demand trends, including tablet purchasing for the holidays. A total of 14% of respondents say they’ll be buying a tablet in the next 90 days – 8-pts higher than an August ChangeWave survey and more than triple the level of a year ago.

Apple continues to show enormous strength in the tablet market, where it’s enjoying the best quarter in its history, according to the survey. But while two-out-of-every-three future buyers plan on purchasing an Apple iPad (65%), for the first time since the launch of the original model, there is a double-digit contender for the number two spot. Better than one-in-five planned purchasers (22%) say they’ll buy a Kindle Fire while 4% say they'll buy a Samsung Galaxy Tab.

As seen in previous ChangeWave surveys, a key reason for the Apple iPad’s market dominance can be found in its customer satisfaction rating. A total of 74% of all iPad owners say they’re Very Satisfied with their device. This compares to a 49% Very Satisfied rating for all other tablet manufacturers combined.

The ChangeWave survey showed the Amazon Kindle Fire is going to leapfrog the competition and become the number two product in the tablet market, as long as it can provide a quality user experience.

But the Amazon surge may also contain a silver lining for Apple, by damaging the tablet market hopes of the remaining competitors in the field, noted ChangeWave.