65% of tablet buyers want the iPad, 22% want Kindle Fire, says survey

Amazon’s cheap Kindle Fire is indeed chipping away at the iPad’s dominance among potential tablet buyers — at least, according to one survey.

65 percent of people who said they’re interested in buying a tablet are planning to get Apple’s $499 iPad, while 22 percent are looking forward to the $199 Kindle Fire, according to the latest report from ChangeWave Research.

The company surveyed 3,043 consumers in North America, 14 percent of whom said they planned to buy a tablet within the next 90 days (the above numbers come out of this smaller portion of responses). That’s a big jump over ChangeWave’s data from last year, in which only 4 percent said they wanted to buy a tablet (when the iPad was really the only choice for most consumers). In August, the company found only 6 percent of consumers were interested in getting a tablet.

The cause of the big shift between August and this most recent survey is plain to see: The arrival of the cheap Kindle Fire is pushing many consumers to finally snap up a tablet. JP Morgan has estimated that Amazon could sell up to 5 million Kindle Fire units this year. For the more discerning customer, disappointed by the Kindle Fire’s middling reviews, its release may convince them to bite the bullet and get an iPad.

Among other tablet choices, 4 percent of potential buyers say they want Samsung’s Galaxy Tab (the exact model is unclear). ChangeWave notes that no other manufacturer reached above 1 percent of consumer demand in its survey (sorry, Barnes & Noble).