• by Mark Walsh  @markfwal, October 5, 2011

What kind of customers will the Kindle Fire attract when the Amazon tablet goes on sale in mid-November? If a new online poll is accurate, the audience for the $199 device will skew older and less affluent than that for the iPad.

People ages 45 and over slightly favor the Kindle Fire by a 51% to 49% margin, while two-thirds of those under 45 prefer the Apple tablet, according to opinion-based social community SodaHead.com. Looking at tablet preference by income level revealed even wider demographic contrasts. People making more than $100,000 annually, for instance, overwhelmingly favor the iPad, at 94%.

For those in the income mid-range of $25,000 to $100,000 -- which encompasses most of the adult U.S. population -- the results were closer, with 54% still wanting the iPad, but 46% ready to try the forthcoming Kindle Fire.

Priced $300 less than the iPad, the Amazon tablet's appeal to less well-off consumers here becomes clear and bodes well for early sales of the Kindle Fire.

The vast majority of people (73%) polled making under $25,000 would get the Kindle Fire rather than the costlier iPad. Overall, however, most people (61%) believe the Apple device will maintain its dominant position in the tablet market despite the arrival of a new low-priced challenger from Amazon.

Following the unveiling of the Kindle Fire last week, few expect the 7-inch Amazon tablet will turn out to be an "iPad killer." The Apple tablet currently has about 80% market share. But some predict it will move past other tablet models to become a strong No. 2 rival to the iPad, with forecasts of up to 5 million in sales in the fourth quarter alone.

In addition to offering access to digital content -- including e-books, music, magazines, movies and TV shows via Amazon -- the Kindle Fire also boasts a new browser called Silk that promises to deliver better mobile Web performance than other tablets.

SodaHead.com says its polling widget, which powers polling for Good Morning America, ABCNews.com, and Foxnews.com, is viewed by 40 million users monthly. Users create personal profiles on the site and interact with fellow members around shared interests.

Separate data released by mobile ad network Jumptap Wednesday indicates that tablet penetration to date is higher overseas. The company said 56% of the tablet traffic on its network comes from outside the U.S., compared to only 28% of overall traffic coming from abroad.

Jumptap's mobile metrics report covering August also showed that 91% of global tablet traffic was over Wi-Fi, which the company said "indicates these devices are not truly mobile." In comparison to mobile phones, people tend to use tablets at least as much at home as on the go.

Reflecting the iPad's strength, iOS was by the most popular tablet operating system with 75% share of traffic, followed by Android (20%) and WebOS (4%). Depending on how well the Android-powered Kindle Fire sells, however, the Google platform could get a significant boost in tablet market share.