Amazon Kindle Fire Slumping, Company Preparing Refresh

eWeek: Although the Amazon Kindle Fire was a big hit during the holiday shopping season, sales since then have dropped precipitously. For the fourth quarter of 2011, the Fire was the number two tablet (behind the iPad) with 17 percent of the market. In the first quarter of 2012, Amazon dropped to third behind Samsung with only 4 percent of the tablet market.

However, analysts say the Fire could take off again when Amazon refreshes the product. They expect an updated version of the current 7-inch Fire to launch later this year, alongside a new version with a larger screen.