According to a new Digitimes’ report, based on unnamed quoted sources from a supply chain, the looming launch of the Apple’s iPad’s next iteration – the iPad 3 – will likely reduce the orders of for the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet by half.

The report has pointed to indications of a 50 percent reduction in the total shipping volume of the Kindle Fire – Amazon’s “most successful product ever” – in just one quarter. Despite the fact that Amazon is yet to release official figures pertaining to the Kindle Fire’s shipments, the company reportedly shipped nearly 6 million units of the device during the 2011 holiday quarter.

The projections of the Kindle Fire’s shipments likely to come down by half are apparently an upshot of the fact that iPad 3 rumors are building up, and the possibility of an early 2012 release of the tablet has already started delivering somewhat of a blow to Amazon’s aggressively-priced $199 tablet.

However, even though it is being projected that the Kindle Fire will be notably hurt by the launch of the iPad 3, there is no overlooking the fact that the Kindle Fire’s highly fetching price point helped the tablet notch up to the second spot – behind iPad 2 – among the most successful tablet devices during the year 2011.

Meanwhile, Apple is also looking to revolutionize the education industry with its new iBooks 2 project which would transform the learning process by helping students research information, view videos, and work with interactive content in a more portable and more tactile manner.