Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) Has Run Out of Kindle Fires

Well, it’s official. The world is coming to the end. Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), the home of millions of products for virtually any room and anything a person could want – has no more of its own products on its ample shelves? Maybe the Mayans were right.

OK, overdramatics aside, but perhaps it’s more than noteworthy that Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) isn’t just running short on its Kindle Fire tablet, but it announced it has actually, literally, run out of the devices. And now that his has happened, all of the speculation is now becoming a wildfire of discussion that the company will unveil a new version of the $199 Fire at its announced event next week in Santa Monica, Calif.

Upon the announcement, Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) stock rose to an all-time high of $250 per share before settling back to about $247.

Since the $199 Kindle Fire came to the market last November, the device has seized more than 20 percent of the tablet market , according to Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) CEO Jeff Bezos. “We have an exciting roadmap ahead,” he said in a news release. “We will continue to offer our customers the best hardware, the best prices, the best customer service, the best cross-platform interoperability, and the best content ecosystem.”

The tablet market is expected to explode this year, with research firm Gartner predicting that  tablet sales are expected to double this year, to about 119 million units.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) reported that its most popular sales have been digital items like videos, music and movies. All of which can be accessed on a Kindle Fire. Now that there are no more Kindle Fires in stock, a fresh stock of a new version of the device will encounter a more intense tablet competition, but may likely be welcomes by key investors in Amazon, such as hedge-fund managers like Ken Fisher of Fisher Asset Management, who had $590 million invested as of the end of June.