Citigroup analyst says 500,000 Kindles were sold in 2008
By Donald Melanson 
posted Feb 3rd 2009 4:16PM
posted Feb 3rd 2009 4:16PM
While it could possibly have something to say on the matter at its big event next week, Amazon has so far been mum on the total number of Kindles sold, which has prompted folks like Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney to do their own digging / speculating to arrive at some hard numbers. Apparently, Mahaney was able to determine that Amazon sold about 500,000 Kindles in 2008 by examining the company's agreement with Sprint, which seems to be a reasonable enough conclusion, although things get decidedly more speculative from there. According to Mahaney, the Kindle will be a $1.2 billion business for Amazon by 2010, assuming that the rate of adoption is similar to that of the iPod at the time of its introduction, and assuming that each Kindle user buys at least one book a month -- two pretty big assumptions, to say the least. As you might have guessed, Mahaney also has a bit to say about the seemingly imminent Kindle 2.0, which he speculates will be thinner and longer than the current model, won't boast a color screen or a touch screen, and possibly cost as low as $300. As they say, stay tuned.
Would be sweet if we could get our text books on a kindle.
definitely
But then you wouldn't have a text book to sell back at the end of the semester for beer money.
You'd probable save more than you would get back buying them digitally plus you wouldnt have to carry your books around, the only down side is not being able to write down notes inside the book itself.
Better than on a computer? I could see the appeal for using the Kindle for reading certain sorts of things, but it seems like a textbook would probably much more useful to have as a regular old PDF on a computer screen.
if you purchase the correct ebook reader, you CAN annotate on the screen.
and the whole idea wioth textbooks is that its a file, and drm never works, so immediately it will be available to all without the need to purchase it.
most people that have ebook readers dont purchase their books.,
they download them.
either legally from free sources or illegally from torrents.
and with programs like calibre that work with the sony ebook series and can convert easily and from a gui from many formats to the proprietary sony format, and the fact that sony (for once) has allowed their device to read non proprietary formats (and open source formats), people will be even more able to carry their books around.
my sony reader has the complete pdf versions of all my MS Press books on it (the books came with a cd that contained pdf versions), and i have probably 9000 other books that are in the MS LIT format which is easily converted to the LRF sony format or to the mobi format.
(psst, many textbooks are available on torrent sites too....)
The problem with textbooks on the kindle is that teachers generally assign page numbers to read, like page 100-150, and the kindle doesn't do page numbers. The kindle also doesn't display graphics very well, so diagrams, pictures, special text formatting, charts and graphs wouldn't be displayed properly. That being said, I've gotten a few books on my kindle for this semester, mostly historical stuff like "The Prince" and "The Republic", I just generally have to read ahead to make sure I've read everything that's been assigned, because of the no page number thing.
Personally I think a netbook with a swiveling monitor and touchscreen would be best for most textbooks, I'm anxiously awaiting the new EEE touchscreen netbook. Hopefully it's a bit better than the gigabyte one.
I love my piracy as much as the next guy, but I would definatly pay for the convenience of not having to lug all of my text books around. Easy transference and zooming of pdf files for research papers and case studies would also be a necesity for me. Is their a way that textbook companies could use the built in whispernet to confirm that the purchaser is the only person reading the book at the time? Kind of like Steam, where I can play my games on multiple computers but only one at a time?
> "The problem with textbooks on the kindle is that teachers generally assign page numbers to read, like page 100-150, and the kindle doesn't do page numbers."
Well, usually the teacher assigns a specific thing that is on pages 100-150. They don't just assign random pages. So you could search for the chapter or item.
"most people that have ebook readers dont purchase their books.,
they download them.
either legally from free sources or illegally from torrents."
What makes you think that? I'd imagine most buy books legally... especially in the case of the Kindle where it has built-in wireless connectivity to Amazon's store front. I'm sure there are many that download book illegally, but "most"? I doubt that.
Whats the advantage of having one of these? Is it backlit at all?
its not backlit, and THAT is the advantage of it.
books aren't backlit either.
reading from a backlit LCD screen is horrible and causes serious eyestrain.
the other advantage of an ebook reader is that is uses NO POWER other than when the page is actually drawn the FIRST time.
turn to a page in the book and leave it there for weeks, it wont use any power to leave the display up.
think of an Etch-A-Sketch
once its drawn, its there. if you want to display a new page, then it redraws and only uses power to redraw.
the battery life on my sony reader is in the week long range for me reading for a few hours a day.
it's also small, lightweight, and can hold several thousand books, newspapers,magazines, etc on it.
I live in the Seattle area where Amazon is based, and I've only seen one Kindle in the wild. An older gentleman on a plane had one, I asked him about it and he told me it was a gift from his son who works for Amazon.
I wonder where the other 499,999 are...
Better than on a computer? I could see the appeal for using the Kindle for reading certain sorts of things, but it seems like a textbook would probably much more useful to have as a regular old PDF on a computer screen.
I haven't seen very many either, but I have one and love it. I did recieve it as a gift, but had I not I probably would have bought one anyway.
I live in probably the ideal environment for these things (just outside NYC; take the Long Island Rail Road every day), and I haven't seen a single one. Not one. And this is the kind of place where you knew the iPod was gonna be a hit because you started seeing entire train car-loads full of people with those white headphone cords only a few months after the thing was released. People here are affluent and have a lot of time to kill on the train every day. I see all manner of media players, DVD players, laptop and netbook computers, portable game machines, smartphones, you name it. Hell, I have even seen a couple of Sony Ebook readers.
Not one Kindle.
Who the hell is buying these things? I don't disbelieve the numbers, I am just genuinely surprised by them. If not the people I ride the train with every day, then who? If not here, then where?
I actually saw one on a recent flight to Phoenix. I have yet to see a Zune, though.
Be sweet if we could get a Kindle outside the US
A book a month isn't that much, and it would be more interesting if magazines were available in kindle format, which could potentially be a decent sized income. Oh and a UK release would be nice.
I've definitely bought at least one book a month since getting my kindle in June. It's so easy with the wireless and for only 10 bucks each it's pretty cheap.
The trouble with a release in the UK, and Australia for that matter is the delivery system.
It seems very cool in the US, but since it is based around a mutation of a Cell phone network, Amazon would have to make special deals with UK and Aus telecom companies before it could be sold.
I know making it enabled for WiFi or 3G networks would be less fun, but it would at least make the Kindle usable overseas.
If they announced Kindle 2 for sale in the UK I'd buy one right now. They're missing out on a big market - people in Europe often seem to be more immediately comfortable with using unfamiliar aspects of mobile technology than in the US (look at how much texting took off over here as opposed to in the States), we do a lot of sitting around on public transport (which this is perfect for), and we are a continent obsessed with literature.
They should hire salespeople to stand in the middle of stations and shopping centres doing demonstrations and taking orders. They'd make a killing.
I wish I was an analyst. This stuff is so stupidly obvious....
This is why Citigroup is in trouble.... ANALyst is full of SHIT
I never see anyone using a kindle even or a plane. Will you buy a netbook or kindle with the same money??
"I never see anyone using a kindle even or a plane."
Which is pretty meaningless. Seeing or not seeing a product in the wild is not a good indicator of the products sales.
Take the iPhone. Besides my own, I have only seen one iPhone in the wild. I have seen a crapload of Blackberries and standard provider phones, but only one other iPhone, but I am pretty sure there were a lot more sold. 500,000 Kindles is not a large enough number in relation to the U.S. population that you would happen to see someone reading one at any given time.
and to go along with that, a lot of people dont take their ebook readers out of their house.
my father had a kindle (hated it and sent it back) and now has a sony reader.
he is homebound for health reasons and spends probably 5 hours a day reading.
he used to do it on a computer monitor and always had headaches and sore necks muscles.
now he reads his newspapers, several magazines, and probably half a book a day from his reader.
it's much more convenient to have 1 reader, than a room full of paperback books.
its also easier to manage and search for a book.
Whoops, stupid thing auto-filled my comment from the other thread. I was *going* to say that I've only seen one as well. It was on a crowded bus in Washington, D.C. after riding crowded buses and Metro trains for a year I only ever saw that one.
Assuming these things are going to take off like the iPod did is naive to say the least. I can fathom Kindle owners buying a book a month (at least until they figure out they can just use an iPhone app and use a single device instead), but I sincerely doubt the Kindle is going to be anywhere near as pervasive as the MP3 player.
iPhone app? Really? So instead of using an e-Reader that doesnt hurt my eyes and has better than a full day battery life for most reading, I'm going to use a screen 1/4 the size and drain my cell phone battery in the first hour to boot? Wow, can't believe I didn't think of that sooner...
Look, I know first hand that my iPhone is capable of playing video with audio for 5 hours straight (the specs say up to 7 hours), it can handle e-reading an offline book.
If you're really into the 3-decade old feel of a monochrome screen, you're all about the Kindle! My point is simply that I don't think it will catch on with the masses.
E-reading will more likely find its home as a niche application on a devices that's already color, with a touch screen and 16 GB of internal memory.
I'd also mention as an aside that I suspect that audio book company Audible.com is a better fit for the digital age vs. Amazon's Kindle approach.
"E-reading will more likely find its home as a niche application on a devices that's already color, with a touch screen and 16 GB of internal memory."
It will, but by that time that LCD in your iPhone will be as outdated as a vacuum tube, and your smartphone/netbook/e-reader will be a paper-thin scroll of e-ink or OLED.
Oh, Colin. Do shut up. The JesusPhone is many things, but an effective ebook reader it is most certainly NOT. If it can get past the 5 hour mark w/o having it bitch at you for running out of batteries b/c the effing backlight has been on the entire time, then maybe we can talk.
Moron.
PS - Like everyone else, I've never seen one of these things in the wild.
Not everyone else... I hear Jeff Bezos liked the Kindel so much he bought 500,000 of them to avoid the rush.
I've seen ONE in the wild.
And I ride a standing-room-only train to and from work every single day. I alone have probably seen 20,000 iPhones with my own eyes this year, and only ONE kindle, lol.
I have had a Kindle for about a year, and I love it. I have only seen one other Kindle out in the wild. An older fellow was reading from his while waiting on line to vote in the Presidential elections. I have downloaded free books from Amazon, mostly classic stuff, like Plato, and Mark Twain, and other books I had never read but had always wanted to. I also have bought books, like a book on Google Adwords, and some books on marketing. I have downloaded about 400 books, mostly free stuff. If I was a college kid, I really would prefer to have books on my Kindle. I have also used the feature to email PDFs to my Kindle for various professional articles that I did not want to read on my computer. The Kindle is much easier to read in bed at night before I go to sleep, or to just pull out in a Starbucks. Its screen is much easier to read than my netbook's screen.
Kindle Success = 8 1/2" x 11" screen, simple interface, $199
These numbers HAVE to be horseshit.
Keen....dulll...