Jeff Bezos posts Kindle apology on Amazon's front page

Sure, Philippe Starck may not care for the Kindle, but an open letter posted on Amazon's front page suggests he's in the minority. We already knew that the company was having a difficult time filling orders, but we had no idea the wait for buyers would warrant what amounts to a public apology from Jeff Bezos. Apparently, the online superstore is drawing heat for six-week delays on delivery for some customers, and is scrambling to get itself into an "order today, ship today" scheme. The original release of the device sold out in just 5 1/2 hours says the letter, which might explain why no one is hacking it -- no one has it.

[Thanks, Michael]

[umm....hello??? @ Mar 20th 2008 11:41AM]

really!?! then what' his excuse for not shipping products the same day listed IN STOCK on Amazon?? Ordered "I Am Legend" on BluRay on the 18th and it's not shipping until the 24th of March....fricking bastard. only if you become an Amazon "member" for $80/year do you get faster standard shipping times unless you pay for priority shipping.

[tcc3 @ Mar 20th 2008 12:34PM]

Uh, dude thats how it works. You want the free shipping, then they ship it when they get around to it (within reason). If you want faster service fork over for the shipping or pay for Prime.

I'll gladly trade a few extra days for free shipping.

[charlie @ Mar 20th 2008 12:35PM]

It is called Free Super Saver Shipping for a reason. If you want it faster you have to pay for it. I personally like the option to pay less and wait, or pay more and get it tomorrow.

[Richard @ Mar 20th 2008 12:51PM]

If you buy a lot from Amazon, signing up for Prime is worth it. I held off for a year but I finally signed up at Christmas time... I love it! I ordered an esata cable yesterday, paid my 3.99 for overnight shipping, and I STILL paid less than I would have at Best Buy.

Now if only I could overnight a Kindle... :p

[jjd @ Mar 20th 2008 1:48PM]

Hey "umm....hello???": I ordered "I am Legend" on Blu-Ray from Amazon on the 17th and received it on the 19th. I'm in the Boston area and have Amazon Prime. I personally have found Amazon Prime to be well worth it over the course of a year.

A friend also noticed that the time from ordering to shipping was much longer before he had Prime than after.

[umm....hello??? @ Mar 20th 2008 6:22PM]

I don't really order many things from Amazon over the course of a year, but I do understand the reasoning--and true, even with faster shipping it'd be less than paying BestBuy's or someone else's prices. Might eventually break down and sign up for Prime membership, glad to know that it works well and that some of you guys feel that it's worth it.

[lonecow @ Mar 20th 2008 11:48AM]

Really? Wow! I'll go there right now, just after I vote your comment DOWN.

Thanks HumanBook!

[Jay @ Mar 20th 2008 11:53AM]

Why anyone would choose the Kindle over Sony's e-Reader I do not know. It looks like it was designed in Cold War Russia. Does it do anything Sony's machine can't?

[Joe @ Mar 20th 2008 11:55AM]

Its so good they haven't even manufactured it yet!

[riggs @ Mar 20th 2008 11:58AM]

in russia book reads YOU

[imacmatt09 @ Mar 20th 2008 12:01PM]

It has free EVDO from sprint.

[DelSource @ Mar 20th 2008 12:02PM]

Yeah, the bloke who designed it must have been kicked out of design school. What a freaking ugly piece of plastic crap.

[Scott @ Mar 20th 2008 12:04PM]

For one, you can order and dowload books from Amazon over Kindle's free cellular access. And they cost half the price of print books rather than double like Sony. Plus it's not a Sony.

[samirss @ Mar 20th 2008 12:46PM]

The answer to your question is - Vast selection of books.

[Jay @ Mar 20th 2008 12:58PM]

@Scott,

I've done random checks on ebook prices and can find little difference between the unit costs from the Sony and the Kindle ebook sources. Some ebooks are cheaper for the Reader, some for the Kindle. Not the big difference in favour of the latter that you claim.

[Marvin Quach @ Mar 20th 2008 11:06PM]

C-c-c-combo breaker!!

[Saad Rabia @ Mar 20th 2008 11:57AM]

Bull crap! Is this even real?! I have never seen or hear about anyone owning a Kindle yet, and almost everywhere they talk about it they end up bashing this stupid device.

Kindle is great, 2 years ago; right now, many other competitors are bringing up better and cheaper solutions, and with better product design. Kindle has one of the worst button placements I have ever seen on a handheld device, ever; so ugly and so wrong, and with all of that crap I will have to buy their books whenever they want to offer them to us!

This is stupidity, and the above letter is a smart trick that anyone can do to drive people's mind into "wanting" it.

I don't hate Amazon, but I do sure hate Kindle.

[Alan Strangis @ Mar 20th 2008 12:23PM]

How can you hate something that's not real.

That's like hating Jebus!

[Saad Rabia @ Mar 20th 2008 12:25PM]

@ Alan Strangis: Hahahahaha. can't agree more. :)

[Mace Moneta @ Mar 20th 2008 12:28PM]

Yeah, still no numbers. Do they make 2 a day? Are they getting 15 orders a week? This is just marketing to try to create a false demand.

[Maurice Troute @ Mar 20th 2008 12:42PM]

I don't hate Amazon either...

I hate your Avatar...

[majortom @ Mar 20th 2008 12:40PM]

ease off the hashish and calm down. I work in the medical field and I see lots of older patients using them while waiting for their doctor's appointment.

[Saad Rabia @ Mar 20th 2008 12:50PM]

@ Maurice Troute: Sorry to disappoint you, honey!!!

@ majortom : lol, Can't believe it!! :p

[Megan @ Mar 20th 2008 8:16PM]

I think you're 100% correct. I've only ever seen one person using it, and I've NEVER heard anyone I know express any interest in it. This is a totally fake "apology" meant to make people think that all the cool kids are buying them and they should too!

[Barry @ Mar 20th 2008 11:57AM]

Wow, that is so relevant. I think I'll head there right now. BRB
*
*
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Ok, I'm back. Hey, that site is nothing but naked kids.

[technophobe @ Mar 20th 2008 11:59AM]

Does anyone even want it?

Did they only make one and it took them nearly 6 hours to sell it?

It probably takes 6 weeks one guy to put them together by hand in some sweat shop somewhere

[BobyW @ Mar 20th 2008 12:43PM]

The. Worst. Product. Name. Ever.

[FoxHoundADAM @ Mar 20th 2008 11:59AM]

I saw this earlier on amazon, I don't understand the popularity of Kindle. With laptops, iPhones and the counteless other portable devices we carry around surly people wouldn't need a ebook. Guess I'm just not enough of a bookworm.

[Geoffrey Sperl @ Mar 20th 2008 12:20PM]

Hey - I'm a bookworm: I have a BA and MA in English. I read books all the time (currently I'm reading "Introducing Nietzsche"). My wife is about to start her doctorate in the fall and there will be a lot of textbooks and library books floating around. Not to mention that she and I have a personal library that easily passes 2,500 books.

And I think the Kindle is a piece of crap. So bookworm does not equal Kindle fan.

Do I think there is a place in the world for such a thing? Hell, yes. A Kindle-like device would be a godsend for research and work. My wife would probably love to have something like this for the textbooks she'll be reading and the research she needs to do.

The entire key to breaking down the ebook barriers are following the tried and true method Microsoft used with MS-DOS and Windows: get people to use it at work. If you have students use it in college, they will continue to use it after they graduate. If parents use it at work, they will carry that to the high schools their kids attend, etc.

The Kindle isn't the future of real books - I don't want to support and troubleshoot the latest Stephen King novel when I actually just want to read it. But the Kindle and its ilk are the future of our temporary reading: newspapers, magazines, library books, etc.

I just wish it looked less like an HP calculate from 1982.

[Geoffrey Sperl @ Mar 20th 2008 12:22PM]

bah... that's "calculator," of course.

[BrettB @ Mar 20th 2008 12:43PM]

The problem here is content. I would have spent the $400 in a heartbeat in college and law school if I could have avoided carrying around hundreds of pounds of books to and from class. And considering the thousands I spend on books while in school, it would have been a drop in a bucket. But they're marketing this as something to read the latest best seller on. Sorry, I can get the latest best seller from the library for free and I only need to carry one around at a time. They need to cozy up to some educational publishers and work hard to get educational content on these things quick. If Amazon doesn't, someone else will. It's only a matter of time. I'm not saying I'll never buy a device like this, but until I can check out books for free from the library on it and/or the device price drops dramatically (it will eventually, no doubt), this will remain a niche item.

[Dale @ Mar 20th 2008 1:34PM]

I too am an avid reader who has no intention of buying a Kindle or Kindle-like product.

I'm not usually a luddite, but I fail to see the advantage this has over real books other than how much literature you can carry at once... and as someone who only reads one book at a time, this isn't a draw.

[DelSource @ Mar 20th 2008 12:00PM]

Hey John, thanks for the fake post. I look forward to Window Washing my hard-drive before the Feds arrive.

[Johan S @ Mar 20th 2008 12:07PM]

I'm sorry if the Kindle is anyone's sister, but it's one ugly device. I much rather read stuff on my iPhone than on the kindle where I can smoothly scroll. The way the kindle refreshes in their demo video looks annoying (apparently it refreshes by turning the whole screen black and then displaying the updated content).

[Mace Moneta @ Mar 20th 2008 12:32PM]

I agree, I read e-books on my PDA nearly continuously. Being able to easily increase the font size and smooth scrolling are the features that are most important to me. No smooth scroll on the Kindle means no sale. Since that's something that can't be done with e-ink displays, it's not a product I'd ever be interested in.

[Harry Wagstaff @ Mar 20th 2008 3:31PM]

I think there might be an Engadget version of Godwin's Law related to the iPhone.

[Jkswiss @ Mar 20th 2008 5:41PM]

I don't know where you're coming from but the textbooks I have don't scroll down. Typically, I have to turn the page to view more content.

[Scott @ Mar 20th 2008 12:07PM]

OK, now you've heard of someone who has one. After ten seconds you learn to hold it without hitting the buttons, and after that they're awesome because you don't need to look or feel for them, when you want to turn the page they're right there impossible to miss.

[PXLated @ Mar 20th 2008 12:07PM]

Of course they're out of stock, they only manufactured enough for Scoble and a few friends ;-)

[WorldCTZen @ Mar 20th 2008 12:12PM]

Actually saw one on the trolley in San Diego, the week after release.. I couldn't get the owner's attention to ask them about it, though.. They were listening to music on it and reading something obviously VERY interesting. (that or they figured I was another trolley freak :) Based on actually SEEING the device in it's case, and watching this person use it.. the 'ugly' factor is almost irrelevant.
If I could get my hands on one for

[MarkM @ Mar 20th 2008 12:12PM]

I'm amazed at how many of these I see on the morning train; not too shabby. That said, I'd have to rock the Sony reader.

[Alan Strangis @ Mar 20th 2008 12:16PM]

Jebus H Christ, Engadget!

Find some writers who can do even a basic amount of research! There ARE Kindle hacks out there, including accessing easter egg functions of it's OS, as well increasing it's functionality.

[Dave @ Mar 20th 2008 12:26PM]

It's the Wii marketing strategy. Create increased demand by shorting the supply and hope that people care.

[eggothewaffle @ Mar 20th 2008 12:37PM]

This is one of those "I'm actually joking but look at how ridiculous my comment would be if people thought I was serious" posts right?

[y3k.nik @ Mar 20th 2008 12:54PM]

umm.. dave... i really dont think Nintendo has an inventory of a million wiis in stock somewhere in china... do you read the news?

[Iphone using MicroSerf @ Mar 20th 2008 12:29PM]

Wow those five people who ordered it are prolly real pissed right now

[MoogleLally @ Mar 20th 2008 12:32PM]

My name is Lauren, I go by MoogleLally on the internets... I have a Kindle! My best friend ordered it for me in November and I got it January 22nd.

Here's the LJ entry where I posted about getting it, so you don't think this is a fakepost: http://laurenlall.livejournal.com/984501.html

I love it! But you have to realize that it fits my needs. I don't have a fancy cell phone with internet availability. I love to read. Plus it has text support so I can read other free books published online. And the audio support is pretty good, too.

[PhilxBefore @ Mar 20th 2008 3:23PM]

OMG WOW!??!?

[bobfet1 @ Mar 20th 2008 12:34PM]

Maybe it's just a brilliant marketing move - right now Amazon's entire front page is proclaiming how awesome their product is because the CEO has to apologize for not having enough.

[Iphone using MicroSerf @ Mar 20th 2008 12:37PM]

I have an MS in Math ....

That means I got about 1 line into your reply and quickly understood that the rest of the comment would be worthless

HOW DARE YOU HATE ON THE HP CALCULATOR !!!

j/k