When Amazon debuted the Kindle Fire e-readers and tablets last year, initial sales were not strong. This year, sales are three times that of last year.

"This holiday there are going to be a lot of customers opening up new Amazon devices," Dave Limp, senior vice president of Amazon Devices, said in a press release. "We're energized by the year-over-year growth of tablet and e-reader Black Friday sales on Amazon.com, plus the success of the new product categories we've launched this year." 

Research shows that 2014 won't be the year of the tablet. Research firm IDC said that the tablet market growth is only expected to be only 7.2 percent. That pales in comparison to the 52.3 percent growth of tablets in 2013.

Amazon's tablet strategy is a little different. The company has been spending tons of money on hardware in the last year or so. This has led to criticism from its peers and poor earnings reports.

The stock too has suffered. For 2014, Amazon's share price has dropped 15.1 percent.

If Amazon is to compete with Apple and Android tablets, more positive news like this year's surge in Fire e-readers and tablets.

Even though tablets are maybe not as popular as they were around this time next year, companies are still making them and people are still buying them.

Price reductions are helping too. Black Friday saw huge price reductions in tablets. iPads and other tablets could be purchased for much less than they usually go for.

"We need to look at how the tablet ecosystem is answering these challenges, and right now we see a lot of pressure on tablet prices and an influx of entry-level products, which ultimately serves Android really well," Jean Philippe Bouchard, Research Director for tablets, said in a press release by IDC. "But we also see tablet manufacturers trying to offset this price pressure by focusing on larger screens and cellular-enabled tablets. The next six months should be really interesting." 

What do you think of Amazon's tablets and e-readers? Are they worth the money?