Kindle most gifted item in Amazon's history, e-books outsell physical tomes on Christmas Day
By Ross Miller 
posted December 27th 2009 9:30AM
posted December 27th 2009 9:30AM
We're still not about say the e-book reader industry has branched out beyond the infancy stage, but one of its flagship products certainly has reason to celebrate. Amazon has announced it's hit some pretty big milestones with the Kindle. The two bullet points it's currently touting loudest is that the reader has become "the most gifted item" in the company's history -- quite an achievement given the size of the online retailer, but what's missing here is any quantitative sales data to give us even a ballpark of the number of units sold. The other big news is that on Christmas Day (we're guessing not Christmas Eve, else the press release surely would've mentioned it, too), e-book sales actually outsold physical books. Those brand new Kindle owners needed something to read, right? It'll be interesting to see if that momentum is maintained through next year, especially with some major publishers starting to show some teeth with digital delays. The Kindle bits were all part of Amazon's annual post-holiday statistical breakdown, so in case you're wondering, besides Kindle, the company is claiming its other top-selling electronics were the 8GB iPod Touch and Garmin nuvi260W, and in the wireless department the honor goes to Nokia's unlocked 5800 XpressMusic, Plantronic's 510 Bluetooth headset, and AT&T's edition of the BlackBerry Bold 9700.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Amazon and other companies should get into the publishing business. All they'd have to do is convert the emailed book into a format and make it available. Authors would then stop bitching about ebooks and could demand a higher percentage than they are getting now.
I have a kindle and am not worried about the proprietary format. Eventually other companies will offer more readers and I guarantee they will read the kindle format.
@TheNotoriousROB
There are laws against such monopolies, not always applied as they should, but still.
Anybody else waiting to until these things start to show a standard? I hate how some formats aren't supported in others, PDF's don't display correctly in some cases, a lot of high art literature isn't available, construction quality is questionable, et al. I love physical books and have around 2500 last I moved and counted them 3 years ago but would with out question move over to an e-reader if I felt it wouldn't add as much inconvenience as it would convenience. losing my book collection from a unfortunate drop or spending a year in my iron maiden like book bag sends a shiver down my spine.
This is a big press release disguised as news. I suppose they're counting "free" and gifted books as sales. A lot of people who received Kindles for Christmas would use their gift card and download free books.
Also, who would order a printed book on Christmas? Almost nobody.
I have a Kindle and it's great, but this is a load of crap.
@InlawBiker
"Also, who would order a printed book on Christmas? Almost nobody."
I'd guess that lots of people who got an Amazon gift certificate hopped online sometime Xmas day and bought books.
The Kindle is a great device. It makes reading easier...especially if you travel. There also isn't a student alive who would rather carry 50lbs of books rather than a single Kindle DX. What makes the Kindle special is that it doesn't depend on a computer (like an iPod) for synching, purchasing and charging. The device also uses so little power that a charge can last weeks. As soon as they start throwing backlighting, color, touchscreens, wifi, etc. into these types of devices battery life will shrink and you'll be looking to replace batteries in the middle of a flight. The Kindle keeps it simple while at the same time remaining an elegant solution..
The publishers need to understand that delaying the release of electronic versions is just going to hurt them. When will they learn to sell people items in the format they want and to charge them a price based on that format.
@KenEsq
You are a bit negative about students, and understandably so, but to say they are all 100% the same is so negative that you push it past a boundary, I'm sure there is a student out there who does still like freedom and privacy and who'd opt for another brand that doesn't control them quite so much.
@Wwhat
I don't think I was being negative about students at all...but yes you're correct...I'm sure there are some students that would rather carry paper textbooks. As for the privacy aspect? That's even tougher especially if the purchase those books from the University store or with a credit card.
As for other brands of ebook readers...I'm sure there are good and bad just like anything else? Is the Kindle the best of the bunch? For my needs yes...for others...maybe no.
The day I buy a Kindle is the day they are selling digital books for $1-$3.
All these Kindles out there and yet I have never seen a single one out in the real world. I hear two of my friends have them :-).
I'm very happy with my Sony PRS-505 though.
David
@Unverified User You need to get out more!
Amazon won't let you give an eBook on Amazon. So if you wanted to give a book on Kindle at Xmas, you had to give a gift card, which was then used to purchase the book on Xmas day. So, every eBook bought for someone this Xmas season actually registered as a sale on the same day, Xmas. Whereas gifted physical books all were recorded on the individual days they were bought.
It's no wonder eBooks outsold real books that day on Amazon, I have to imagine it was by quite a large margin.
@spin cycle Indeed, the lack of "buy this kindle-book as a gift" or even "add this kindle-book to my wishlist" really messed with my christmas shopping this year (yeah, yeah, #firstworldproblems, but isn't it odd that a company that delivers so well on the rest of christmas shopping, fails so completely at it with their flagship product?)
I Love my Kindle!