Amazon rumored to have sold 240,000 Kindles

Amazon's been pretty cagey with Kindle sales numbers, except to say that it sold out the first batch in 5.5 hours and that more are finally arriving. Still, you can't keep a secret forever, and TechCrunch says they have it on good authority that Bezos and Co. have sold some 240,000 Kindles since November. Adding it all up, that's good enough for $100M in total revenue so far -- which is about what Wall Street's been predicting. Of course, that's chump change compared to the $1B annual business some analysts think Kindle can be, but you gotta start somewhere -- and a quarter-mil out the gate in the first year ain't bad at all.

[thef1re @ Aug 1st 2008 8:30PM]

and two years later.. Steve Jobs releases the iRead.

Instant success?

[JohnTitor @ Aug 1st 2008 9:04PM]

if they add a iTunes book store

[Wormbolt @ Aug 1st 2008 9:16PM]

Jobs has already declared that people don't read. Maybe he meant his customers can't read.

[d @ Aug 1st 2008 10:00PM]

but iDon't read.

[someone @ Aug 1st 2008 11:37PM]

Apple fans can't read, so they simply buy the best product out there without being able to read the price tag until too late!

It actually is a nice philosophy: get the best thing out there and don't settle for cheap sh*t.

[weg @ Aug 1st 2008 8:38PM]

Engadget should just automatically add a "first post" by "Random Jerk" to every article posted, just to discourage people like you from posting.

[AlphaTeam @ Aug 2nd 2008 11:53PM]

Or they would just delete the post ;)

[digitallysick @ Aug 1st 2008 8:39PM]

In other news 240,000 people have a lot of free time and money to spend

[chris @ Aug 1st 2008 11:47PM]

That's ridiculous. I love to read, always have. But don't have time to read as much as I would like. In the time I've owned my Kindle, I've been able to read a little here and there of multiple books and have easily ready 3-4 times as many books as I would normally have read in the same time period, and my reading speed is increasing, meaning my little spare time is better suited to reading.

I guess people don't get it yet. Most arguments against the Kindle come from people who've never laid a hand on one or worse - iTools who think their iPhones (or other tiny backlit screen device) is good enough for an ebook. I tried reading a book on my Handspring Visor back in the day. Painfully poor experience. I tried reading on my Meizu Miniplayer, only marginally better because of resolution and font.

To those commenting on the bulk of the Kindle - STFU. Have you actually held one? It's literally the size of a novella. As for ugly, yeah, it's not pretty, but Apple can't have the total market on craptastic design.

:)

[mymaclife @ Aug 2nd 2008 2:38AM]

@ Chris

It's a pity all that reading hasn't improved your grammar.

[ybd @ Aug 4th 2008 7:38AM]

Gee you sure got him there, mymaclife.

[Aguiluz @ Aug 1st 2008 9:02PM]

Then we are pissed off every article we read.

[Kobe_No_Means_No @ Aug 1st 2008 9:09PM]

I'll believe it when actual figures are presented. So far I think Amazon is just hyping up its own product.

[Mac @ Aug 1st 2008 9:16PM]

By the number of product feedbacks (3928 at the time being) I would say the numbers are around 10000-20000 at most. Every time you buy something Amazon asks you (by email) to leave a feedback and leaving a feedback is a common thing.

I do not believe that only 4% of the customers have written a feedback about their $350 product (which they are either proud of it or hate it).

[LC @ Aug 1st 2008 9:52PM]

You are kidding right?

I would put the percentage of people that leave feedback, from products purchased on Amazon, around the same as the percentage of football pool winners reporting their winnings on their tax returns.

[Richard @ Aug 2nd 2008 4:10AM]

I buy from Amazon ALL the time and even signed up for a Prime Membership last year.

I have never once posted a review.

[kain @ Aug 2nd 2008 6:12PM]

I have bough three kindles now, guess how many times i have reviewed it. yep 0. So since we are all pulling numbers out of our asses i am going to go out on a limb and say that amazon has sold 500 billion kindles. If you look you will see the vast majority of those reviews were posted before the first kindle even shipped.

[KO'M @ Aug 4th 2008 1:49PM]

I have a kindle, and did not leave a review. I find most of the people who leave reviews are either meat puppets or perhaps a little "meticulous". I do read the reviews though, so maybe I should start doing the review thing.

[John M @ Aug 1st 2008 9:21PM]

One of my company's litigators gave my father (our CEO) a Kindle for his birthday yesterday.

I played with it today, I was unimpressed and am beginning to think we are paying his firm way too much.

[SINNN @ Aug 1st 2008 9:24PM]

Kindles? That gots nothing on my shinny 3g iphone!

[AlphaTeam @ Aug 2nd 2008 11:56PM]

Yeah except I can get free internet and how much does yours cost?

[nVidiot @ Aug 1st 2008 9:26PM]

I'm one of the buyers; I enjoy The Kindle a lot.

I travel a lot and also use it when doing cardio (exercise bike).

[Drew @ Aug 2nd 2008 10:39AM]

Read and work out at the same time? Wow that's actually pretty impressive...

[Harkonian @ Aug 4th 2008 4:06PM]

It really is ugly. Add that to the lack of PDF support and it's a no-buy for me. The Sony Reader is great. It supports PDF reflowing, RTF, and even the soon-to-be-standard EPUB formats. Sure, I'd like to have over-the-air purchases on the Sony Reader like Kindle has, but frankly I refuse to buy anything DRMed anyway (or at least a DRM I can't remove), so it's a moot point.

[HalcyonGT @ Aug 1st 2008 9:34PM]

Maybe if they weren't so fucking ugly, in color and had a more reasonable price point they could sell more.

Kindle 2.0 perhaps?

[SK @ Aug 1st 2008 9:36PM]

240K is a drop in the bucket in the publishing industry, even assuming the average owner has purchased a book a month.

The Kindle tries too hard to copy the paperback in presentation of material, with the disadvantage of an ugly form factor and high price.

This is not the future of the e-book.

[Charbax @ Aug 2nd 2008 1:22PM]

240K Kindle users means that now over 6% of books purchased on Amazon are now Kindle versions of the book. Soon enough more then half of all books purchased on Amazon are going to be purchased wirelessly by people that use the Kindle to read the books.

And how that affects the book industry? Well Amazon just happens to be the biggest book store in the world.

[cirby @ Aug 1st 2008 9:37PM]

That's odd...

I work in the convention business, and a lot of the people I meet are real techheads. They collect all of the newest gadgets - whatever gives them something to do when out of town.

Zero Kindles.

[Mr.Ortiz @ Aug 1st 2008 9:46PM]

ok, can we stop acting surprised that people who don't read books don't buy kindles?

[Rytr23 @ Aug 1st 2008 10:02PM]

umm, yeah, because "tech heads" are busy reading stuff on websites via laptops/pcs or on their phones, oh they generally doesn't use e-ink to display.. although you can browse sites on a kindle, but it's slow.

[lanejasper69 @ Aug 3rd 2008 10:44PM]

I agree, I haven't seen one in public live anywhere and I would through my network of people, I think they are also hyping own product. The concept is great though, but I don't believe these numbers a bit.

"Fas"

[Jubei @ Aug 1st 2008 9:38PM]

Why bother with such a bulky device. The iPhone or Touch is all you need to get your eBooks.

[nVidiot @ Aug 1st 2008 9:48PM]

???

I own both an iPhone and an iPod Touch.. I couldn't immagine reading a book on them.

My kindle lasts me an entire week long business trips with a few hours of reading per day on one charge. I don't get all of the hate on the Kindle, it's not for everyone but it's a cool piece of kit for actual book readers. The whispernet is awesome too.

[Rytr @ Aug 1st 2008 10:10PM]

Have you ever tried reading a backlit screen for a couple hours on end? It's strains the eyes and makes it a chore.. e-ink is in it's infancy, but the Kindle, Sony readers, Illiad etc are not bad early devices. Each has their own pros and cons of course... and the cons certainly outweigh the pros if you don't read books in the first place.. But for someone who reads multiple books a week/month or simultaneously, they are pretty darn handy. And with the kindle, you don't have to drive to the library to get a new book, or wait for someone to donate what your looking for.. Soon the gas will cost more than purchasing a book anyways..

[^ Fusion Fuzo ^ @ Aug 1st 2008 9:41PM]

they must be frowing 240,000 FUGLY kindles in the sea for fish, know body reads books its all blueray, dvd, television

a kindle is like something out of the 1920's

[LC @ Aug 1st 2008 9:57PM]

Your grammar and spelling is something out of the 1920's......B.C.

[Tyler @ Aug 1st 2008 9:59PM]

After reading your comments, it's obvious that you don't really read, either. I teach high school in one of the worst districts in the country; yet, somehow, my remedial students have a better grasp on the english language than you do.

I'd also have to question your grasp of time, claiming that this is similar to something from the 1920's.

Anyway, back to Harrison's on my Palm...

[Abuzar Baloach @ Aug 2nd 2008 2:05AM]

When criticizing people about their grammar, you should know that it's supposed to be 1920s not 1920's.

[Muhammed @ Aug 2nd 2008 3:01AM]

ooooooooooooooooooooh snap!

[^ Fusion Fuzo ^ @ Aug 1st 2008 9:44PM]

a kindle is like something out of the 1920's, PURE SHAME FOR THE SAD PEOPLE USING THEM, I fill sorry for anyone having to suffer the torture of using a kindle

[HOOPER @ Aug 1st 2008 11:00PM]

Please do not fill sorry for me, it sounds gross...

[andres @ Aug 1st 2008 11:22PM]

damn, 1920's sound pretty awesome.

[hicks @ Aug 1st 2008 9:45PM]

A friend got a Kindle a few months ago. I have to say I was underwhelmed by the idea until I held one in my hands. The lightbulb went off and I think they're a pretty neat thing. Expensive, sure, but so are books. And really, for the price of 10-12 hardcovers, it's not totally outrageous.

[peshue @ Aug 1st 2008 9:45PM]

That's 240,000 people who must not understand how a library works.

[Hung @ Aug 2nd 2008 12:28AM]

That's one person who doesn't understand the difference between a 30,000 sqft building and something the size of a modestly large paperback.

Some people, namely students, would prefer to carry around something that's 7.5" x 5.3" x 0.7" instead of the dozens of text books, prep guides, and syllabi (my sister has an 800 page syllabus for her physiology class at med school) required for daily usage.

[Hung @ Aug 2nd 2008 12:31AM]

I should be more clear. One Kindle can be the equivalent to one library. Few people enjoy lugging around 20 books in loads of 3-4 (highly typical of college kids)

[AL @ Aug 2nd 2008 6:32PM]

If you go to the library, it will cost you the price of fuel, wear and tear on your vehicle; to find that the book is not in the library. Oh yeah, that sounds like fun. With the Kindle, you can actually preview the book, for free, and purchase it for the price of 2 gallons of gas. That, my friend is a no brainer.

[ryeguy_24 @ Aug 1st 2008 9:47PM]

call me when the Kindle has an accelerometer...

[Rob @ Aug 1st 2008 9:52PM]

It still too expensive. Give me a color screen and a lower price, then I'd consider it. Borrowing books from my public library is much cheaper.

[matt @ Aug 2nd 2008 3:43AM]

Why do you need colour? Print is Black and white.....


Unless you want a picturebook :)