A new survey by the investment banking firm concluded that each Kindle Fire generates well over $100 in additional income, which more than makes up for the $2 to $3 Amazon reportedly loses on each sale.

“Kindle Fire unit economics are likely to be more favorable than consensus expectations, based primarily on frequency of digital goods purchases,” RBC Capital analyst Ross Sandler said in a research note to clients. “Our assumption is that Amazon could sell 3-4 million Kindle Fire units in Q4, and that those units are accretive to company-average operating margin within the first six months of ownership. Our analysis assigns a cumulative lifetime operating income per unit of $136, with a cumulative operating margin of over 20 percent.”

So: an additional $136 over the lifetime of the device.

How are Fire owners spending that money? Mostly on e-books. According to Sandler’s survey, 80 percent of Fire owners have purchased e-books, and 58 percent of those bought more than three of them within the first 60 days of ownership. Sandler figures that means the typical Fire owner will buy five e-books per quarter, generating about $15 net per quarter for Amazon (assuming an e-book ASP of $10).

Making up the remainder of that $136 sum? Apps, mostly. Two-thirds of the Fire owners Sandler surveyed had purchased at least one app. And 41 percent of those claimed to have purchased three or more. Sandler estimates that the typical Fire owner will purchase three apps per quarter, generating another $9 for Amazon.

Add to that video-on-demand buys and incremental purchases of physical goods, and you reach $136. Which isn’t bad at all, particularly if you’re multiplying it by the three million to four million Fires that Sandler expects Amazon to sell in its fourth quarter.

Sandler has an “Outperform” rating on Google and a price target of $475, which would be 43 percent above the current price.

Sandler writes that he’s generally felt that Facebook is complementary to Google, but “that could change if Facebook’s rapid growth trajectory continues on its current path.” At the very least, writes Sandler, “we think Facebook as the “starting point” for more and more users on the Internet could create some multiple compression for Google over time, if the momentum continues.”

Currently, the two sites are driving traffic to one another, and here Sandler offers intriguing stats pulled from Comscore (SCOR) Web data.

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While continuing to recommend the stock, analysts at both RBC Capital and Bernstein Research today trimmed both their earnings estimates and price targets for the Internet search giant. That follows similar moves by analysts at Stifel, Morgan Stanley, AmTech and Collins Stewart.

RBC Capital’s Ross Sandler maintains an Outperform rating, but today cut his price target to $500 from $600. For 2008, his EPS estimate is now $19.14, down from $19.45; for 2009 he now sees $21.24, down from $23.46. The move, he writes, is “based on the deteriorating macro environment.” (I bet you sure are surprised to hear that.) He says search is holding up better than other forms of online advertising, but that “no company is immune to cyclical factors.”

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Our industry is not immune to what goes on in the global economy. And yet as I travel, given the current circumstances, people still see a certain buoyancy in the market.”

– Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, Sept. 26, 2008

Wall Street’s 777-point selloff Monday–one of its worst days since 1929–hit many tech stocks harder even than the overall market on Monday. Said Ross Sandler, senior Internet analyst at RBC Capital Markets, “Tech took it on the chin disproportionately.”

Indeed, it did. And a couple of other places as well, from the looks of things.

A quick overview of the carnage:

• Amazon (AMZN) fell 10 percent to $63.35
• Apple (AAPL) fell 17.9 percent to $105.26
• Cisco (CSCO fell 8.5 percent to $21.79
• Comcast (CMCSA) fell 13 percent to $18.01
• Dell (DELL) fell 9.4 percent to $15.41, a new 10-year low
• eBay (EBAY) fell 12 percent to $19.95
• Google (GOOG) fell 12 percent to $381.00, a new 2-year low
• Intel (INTC) fell 10.1 percent to $17.27, a new 2-year low
• Microsoft (MSFT) fell 8.7 percent to $25.01
• Oracle (ORCL) fell 9 percent to $18.77
• Qualcomm (QCOM) fell 13 percent to $39.88
• Research In Motion (RIMM) fell 12.8 percent to $61.73
• Sirius XM (SIRI) fell 18 percent to $0.62
• Sun (JAVA) fell 11.7 percent to $6.75, a new 13-year low
• Yahoo (YHOO) fell 10.8 percent, to $16.88, a new 5-year low

Seems the tech industry “buoyancy” to which Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer referred last week was more of a noneffervescence. Certainly, that’s the impression one gets from reading the statement Microsoft just issued calling on Congress to revisit its vote against the financial bailout plan. “Microsoft strongly urges members of the U.S. House of Representatives to reconsider and to support legislation that will re-instill confidence and stability in the financial markets,” General Counsel Brad Smith said in a statement. “This legislation is vitally important to the health and preservation of jobs in all sectors of the economy of Washington State and the nation, and we urge Congress to act swiftly.”

What was that you were saying about “buoyancy” again, Steve?

Still, to be fair, the tech sector does appear to be gaining some ground in early trading today. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 2 percent to 2,027, reclaiming some of Monday’s ugly 9 percent loss. Apple shares are up 2.7 percent at $106.70 as I write this. Google shares are up 4.5 percent at $398.06. Microsoft is up 2.5 percent at $25.63. Even Yahoo is on an upward track, up 2.43 percent at $17.29.