Amazon said on Thursday it has sold more than 1 million Kindle devices in a week, in an unusual announcement from the largest Internet retailer, which comes in the wake of some negative reviews about their new tablet, the Kindle Fire.

The latest entrant to the tablet market said that consumers are buying “well over” a million Kindles a week. This level of sales occurred for three weeks uninterrupted, the company added.  The number of sales includes the tablet Kindle Fire and all versions of the Kindle electronic reader.  Amazon did not disclose the numbers of the Kindle tablet separately.

However, the executive of Amazon, Dave Limp, said sales of the Kindle Fire increased week after week for each of three weeks and has been the most popular item on Amazon since its launch 11 weeks ago.

“Kindle Fire sales increased week over week for each of the past three weeks,” said Dave Limp, VP, Amazon Kindle.

Apple’s iPad is facing heightened competition from Barnes & Noble’s Nook, which has a $199 color version and Amazon Kindle, the basic version of which sales at $79. Both these cheaper tablets run on Android’s operating system, which also gives Android a boost in terms of tablet market share.

Even if Apple’s being encroached on, it will still the leader in tablet market by wider margine. According to a report by market research company IDC, Apple has shipped 11.1 million iPads during the third quarter, making it a 61.5 percent market share.

Total tablet sales reach at 18.1 million during the same period, which is lower than expected, but the holiday season will likely provide a much needed boost for tablet sales. Android-based tablets stood in second position, at about 40 percent. HP was in third place with 903,000 units sold and a 5 percent market share.  Samsung is at 5.6 percent with its Android-powered Galaxy Tab.

Since the introduction of the Kindle Fire, it has already come in second after the iPad followed by Samsung Galaxy Tab, Barnes and Noble Nook and HTC tablets. If the trend continues, Amazon will have 13.8 percent market share of global tablet sales in the fourth quarter, exceeding 4.8 percent currently held by Samsung as reported by IHS.