'Millions of people' now own Kindles, says Amazon in its most non-vague sales statement yet
By Ross Miller 
posted January 28th 2010 7:41PM
posted January 28th 2010 7:41PM
Amazon has been notoriously and aggravatingly mum on releasing concrete sales figures for its Kindle series. Last tidbit we heard was that it was the most gifted item in the retail company's history. Or maybe there was some indication by AT&T's note today that 1 million non-phones have been activated, which at this point includes newer Kindles, Nooks, and Sony Readers. At any rate, CEO Jeff Bezos let out the tiniest smidgen of Kindle's sales today in its fiscal report, saying that "millions of people now own Kindles." If we're lucky, next earnings call we'll get to play a "higher or lower" guessing game. Maybe.
This is the best ebook reader out there. No iPad for me.
@dbonelee
Wait til you see the next big thing, the iPad Nano!
http://www.vimeo.com/9033039
@Blackstar
Wouldn't that just be an ipod touch? lmao
@dbonelee
OMG, you're talking craziness! The Kindle has no camera, no flash support, no multi-tasking.
Amazon has ruined my life.
@Blackstar: LOL! Very good.
@treats Ha! Sure, lets analyze the Kindle like it was an iPad...
There's nothing revolutionary about it!
I can already read books with the Windows Mobile phone I've had for years!
I hear that Google is going to do an eBook reader at the end of the year and all their books are going to be free!
No eBook subscriptions? Lame!
I can read books with my convertible tablet PC from 2003! Why would anybody need this?
I can't write notes in my eBooks with a stylus? Where's the freaking stylus? What good is this?
@Fanfoot
The battery lasts about a week.
Very thin and portable.
Not a jack of all trades but does one thing very well.
Does not strain my eyes.
And has the best selection of digital books out there. (currently)
@treats
The iPad doesn't support flash either you idiot.
@treats Ha ha, the IPAD does not have a camera, flash support or multitasking either.
@bglf83
Back to Sarcasm 101 for you.
@dbonelee . If it does what you need, congrats to you.
The kindle is a proper ebook reader (translation: e-ink or similar, lightweight, long battery life) and marketed as such.. nothing magical (::snicker::) here. It doesn't claim to be "the best thing and most amazing thing since sliced bread."
Still, I plan to get an iPad for my mother since it will fit her needs. She only does light browsing, email, occassional reading and movies.
I must admit that the only thing I hate about e-book readers is the lack of a color screen. To me its like going the technology went backwards.
Yes, I understand that e-ink allows the reader to function efficiently, but I will wait for a color screen reader. (someday)
@dbonelee nook is so much better in terms of hardware. just wait 6 months and youll see the software catchup.
@dbonelee I haven't had time to play with the Kindle, but I have played with Nook and have had some good experiences. I believe that the 2009 awards were somewhat unfair, and I will explain why. It doesn't matter which is better, Nook vs. Kindle vs. Sony E-Reader, but these awards were a popularity contest. Basically, someone voted to which way they purchased. This is somewhat biased since Nook started shipping in late november, and the Kindle was out way before that. I think that Nook made a strong showing in just 1 month to sell as much as it did.
Like I said, I've never played with a Kindle, so I have no knowledge on the device outside what i've read, but it still makes for a biased awards, does it not?
Anyone else thinking a huge price drop is on its way? The DX costs nearly as much as the iPad (as lame as I think the iPad is), that should be enough to pressure them into it.
@Nitesh
It's not them, it's 'him'
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2009/02/09/2008725901.jpg
founder, president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Bezos
And no I think he won't drop price too much.
@Wwhat Amazon is an entire multinational multibillion dollar company, Jeff does not sell these out of his garage. Yes, he is president and CEO, but others do make decisions like price as well.
@Nitesh
iPad Vs Kindle - Comparison: Apples Vs Oranges
Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6" Display) $259 - Battery Life: 1 Week.
Functions: Read at home and on the train.
iPad (10" Display) $500 - Battery Life: 1/2 Day.
Functions: Read at home only.
@Nitesh
Yeah, lame color screen and lame appstore.. bleh... technological progress... bah humbug..
@Thinker .. the battery life on the iPad is 10 hours with wifi on and browsing. If you were just reading books I am sure you could easily get 20 hours. Who spends 20 hours a day reading before charging ?
Own?
And then there was iBooks
Pshhh. Stupid Amazon, being all vague. Who want's guessing games? If you want straight facts about something check out Engadget's coverage of the iPad. All facts, no rumors.
@sonicyoof: I see what you did there.
@sonicyoof ymmd
Ya don't say!???
I don't
Wonder how much of their profit on Kindles comes from the purchase of the device itself, vs books/content bought on it after it is purchased. Would be interesting to know how many people bought one, bought a book or two and now it is just sitting on a shelf somewhere.
@gadgeteer63 Well, they said that in cases where Amazon has both the physical book and the Kindle version, 6 of every 10 of those books sold were the Kindle versions. So there are a lot of books being sold on Kindle. Of course, making money, that's different...a new book only available in hardcover goes for $10 on the Kindle...and publishers charge Amazon $12.50 for those books. So they are losing money on the most popular (non-free) books.
The iPhone is what will make the ipad successful.
Where are all these ereaders hiding? I don't know anyone that owns one and I've yet to see someone in the wild actually using one.
@dand
Most people I have seen with them would be the 50+ crowd. They seem to appreciate the e-ink over a LCD display for reading. At least that is my experience.
@djt has it right.
They have disposable income, time to read if retired, and a single-use device is very easy to understand.
It must be really easy to use anyway, my Grandad's never called me about his Sony Reader.
@dand
I would assume that most people who have one probably use it where they normally read - at home. (that's where I use mine)
@dand
Looking back 30 years, a market needs Steve Jobs to anoint it before it can be successful.
@dand i don't know what backwoods hole you live in, but i live in DC and I see at least 7-10 Kindles on the Metro every morning. Some of the users are in their 40s, but there are plenty of people in their late 20s and early 30s using it as well.
@dand
I live in New York City and I see them quite a lot, mostly young women, cute young women. ;) It's definitely not limited to the 50+ crowd in NYC. A lot of people carry them around because you lug everything with you in a city like NYC, so lots of books is not so pleasant.
I was gifted a Kindle for Christmas but I returned it to Amazon in exchange for an HTC Touch Pro2 on Sprint... same cost for the device. I returned it because I don't want an e-reader, I want a tablet PC, so I bought the Viliv X70 and threw XP Pro and Ubuntu on there. I use it to read and write, to draw, to make music, etc. It serves my needs relatively well.
I'd say NYC has many of the Kindle's Amazon has sold. I thought Sprint serviced Kindle downloads, so what's with the ATT reference in the blog entry?
@Please forgive me Hey, you put Ubuntu on X70? With double boot or as a VM? How did it go, easy? Does it work? Does 3G work?
@vk77de
Hey, it was not at all easy... actually took months of part time tinkering to get the touch screen, wireless, ad something else I'm forgetting to work. I was thinking of writing a how to, but I did so much tinkering I can't be sure I'd get it all covered properly.
I do not have the 3G version so no work on getting 3G to work.
Ubuntu loads fine by itself, but the wireless will fail if you use network manager... you have to disable it and use a manual method, entering all wireless connection info into a couple of files (wpa_supplicant / interfaces / resolv.conf) and starting the connection when you want (ifup / ifdown)... but once you do, it's easy, just make a shortcut on the desktop and it works flawlessly. Touch screen, there are tricks but the number of places where you have to enter little bits of code to make it all work is miraculous. I think it needs adjustment of maybe 8 files / folders or more. But once done, it works very well.
I was thinking of posting a complete image of the Ubuntu Studio 9.10 install somewhere if people are interested in using Ubuntu on the X70, but the problem is, I need to figure out how to edit out my password / security info.
It's real dual boot with Grub as the boot loader. I made a couple of Primary partitions and just load Windows from Grub when I want to work in Windows. I loaded XP Pro and Ubuntu Studio 9.10 on there and both work well. Only thing i'm trying to resolve is sleep / suspend for both. They work, but the virtual keyboard is missing for logon. I did something because that used to work but then disappeared.
All the info to get this working is on the web... I just read like 400 pages to get the settings right. I wish I could pick out just the 20 pages that were correct, but it is so much to go through to do that.
i have a nook as an e-reader and i want an ipad as a media device so you ipad haters will want one in the future, because you can also do iwork on it.
@redmaxer but that was the stuff john hodgman was doing in the adverts! Boo hiss etc.
Just watch as Comics Books get popular on the iPad, headlines like "comics books are iPad's killer app", "Apple re-invents the comics book" will appear then Amazon will scramble to offer comic books on a new color Kindle.
@Virus Cannon
Thats the day when I lose my faith in humanity.
@Virus Cannon
So people are going to pay 400.00 for a device, to read comic books?
So if I share one with my wife, does that count as two owners?
Millions sold and I've never seen one in the wild.
In Soviet Russia, millions of Kindles now own you!
@Ethan
In Soviet Russia, Soviet Russia is in you.
I'm a kindle owner that will be selling my kindle on ebay the day after I get the iPad.