Amazon, the No. 1 e-retailer, reported shipping more than three million Kindle Fires, its $199 media tablet priced to compete with Apple's iPad 2.

The Seattle-based retailer that started out just selling books in 1994 said it sold more than a million Kindle Fires this week, the third consecutive weekly sales record.

"Kindle Fire is the most successful product we've ever launched," said Dave Limp, Amazon Kindle VP. "Demand is accelerating."

Amazon said it asked its principal supplier, Taiwan's Quanta Computer, to keep building more of the Kindle Fires to meet demand. The company didn't break out how many Kindle Fires and older-model Kindles, priced at $79, were sold in the latest week.

Before CEO Jeff Bezos officially introduced the Kindle Fire, market researcher Forrester predicted that at the right price point, Amazon might be able to sell as many as five million in the quarter.

The company also said the lower-priced Kindles are "close behind" Kindle Fire on the internal bestseller list, with some customers purchasing a Kindle Fire and a Kindle or Kindle Touch as well.

Besides books and magazines, Amazon Prime offers a $79 monthly service offering movies, videos and games from vendors such as Angry Birds, Netflix, Hulu and Pandora.

If the sales pace continues through the holiday shopping season, Amazon may well have the second most-popular tablet in the sector. Also, it would be a significant milestone for Google because it uses a modified version of its OS, Android 2.3.

This week, Bezos and his wife MacKenzie Bezos donated $15 million to their alma mater, Princeton University, for a new center in neural sciences named for them.

Amazon shares rose about 1.8 percent to $183.45 in Thursday afternoon trading. Apple shares fell slightly to $379.85.

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