More than 1 million Kindles are being sold every week

[neiltc13]

Customers Purchasing Kindles at Rate of More Than 1 Million Per Week for Third Straight Week

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 15, 2011-- (NASDAQ: AMZN)-Amazon.com today announced that Kindle devices remain the hottest products this holiday season – for the third week in a row, customers are purchasing well over 1 million Kindle devices per week, and Kindle Fire remains the #1 bestselling, most gifted, and most wished for product across the millions of items available on Amazon.com since its introduction 11 weeks ago. To learn more about the all-new Kindle family – the $79 Kindle, $99 Kindle Touch, $149 Kindle Touch 3G and the $199 Kindle Fire – visit http://www.amazon.com/kindle.

"Kindle Fire is the most successful product we've ever launched – it's the bestselling product across all of Amazon for 11 straight weeks, we've already sold millions of units, and we're building millions more to meet the high demand. In fact, demand is accelerating – Kindle Fire sales increased week over week for each of the past three weeks. People are buying Kindle Fire because it's a simple, fully-integrated service that makes it easy to do the things they love – watch movies, read books and magazines, listen to music, download apps, play games, and surf the web," said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. "Our family of Kindle e-ink readers are close behind Kindle Fire on the Amazon.com bestseller list. Customers continue to report preferring their Kindle e-reader for long-form reading, and in fact we've seen many customers buy two Kindles – both a Kindle Fire and a Kindle or Kindle Touch – this holiday season."

Kindle Fire offers more than 19 million movies, TV shows, songs, books, magazines, apps and games – such as Netflix, Hulu, Pandora and Angry Birds – as well as free storage of Amazon digital content in the Amazon Cloud, Whispersync for books and movies, a 14.6 ounce design that's easy to hold with one hand, a vibrant, color touch screen, a powerful dual-core processor and Amazon Silk – Amazon's new revolutionary web browser that accelerates the power of the mobile device by using the computing speed and power of the Amazon Web Services cloud – all for only $199.

The $79 latest generation Kindle is for readers around the world who want the lightest, most compact Kindle at an incredible price. Kindle is now small and light enough – at less than 6 ounces – to fit easily in your pocket and carry with you everywhere, yet it still features the same 6-inch, most advanced electronic ink display that reads like real paper, even in bright sunlight.

Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G feature an easy-to-use touch screen that makes it easier than ever to turn pages, search, shop, and take notes – still with all the benefits of the most advanced electronic ink display. Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G are also lighter, smaller, offer audio capabilities, such as text-to-speech and deep integration for audiobooks, extra-long battery life and hold thousands of books. Kindle Touch 3G offers the unparalleled added convenience of free 3G. Kindle's free 3G connection means you never have to hunt for or pay for a Wi-Fi hotspot – you simply download and read books anytime, anywhere in over 100 countries around the world. Amazon pays for the 3G connection so there's no monthly fee or annual contract. Both Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G include X-ray – a new feature invented by Amazon that lets customers explore the "bones of the book."

With an Amazon Prime membership, all of the new Kindles offer access to the new Kindle Owners' Lending Library and Prime Instant Video. With the Kindle Owners Lending Library, Kindle owners can now choose from thousands of books to borrow for free – including over 100 current and former New York Times Bestsellers – as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates. No other e-reader or e-bookstore offers such a service. With Prime Instant Video, Kindle Fire owners can access nearly 13,000 movies and TV shows available to stream at no additional cost.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/15/kindle-devices-selling-at-a-rate-of-one-million-a-week-ahead-of/

Sounds like the new Kindles are a huge hit with customers. I got one myself, very impressed so far.

 

[mkrishnan]

I think it's pretty reasonable to be bullish about Kindle as a franchise. I'm excited for better availability / content and maybe even some more aggressive book pricing as the market enlarges.

I actually didn't know about the "X-ray" feature -- I wonder if the Fire has it, or just the Touch? Is it more or less the same as the extras that are in the Kindle for iOS app?

 

[*LTD*]

And the return rates?

Wait until the dust settles before getting excited about non-Apple tablets.


Even the guy who wrote the Kindle Fire companion manual is returning it. Just how many of those "1 million per week" customers got hosed?

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http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/pulp-friction-the-debate-over-amazons-fire/

‘Kindle Fire: The Missing Manual’ author to return Kindle Fire, keep his ‘years ahead iPad 2

“It is still early days for the Fire. Many were doubtless sold as Christmas gifts, so the true verdict from the masses won’t come for a few weeks,” David Streitfeld writes for The New York Times. “But in the meantime here is another professional evaluation, from someone who has probably used the Kindle more than anyone who does not work for Amazon. Peter Meyers is a digital book consultant who is writing ‘Breaking the Page: Transforming Books and the Reading Experience’ (free download of the first three chapters here). He broke off from that effort last month to write ‘Kindle Fire: The Missing Manual,’ to be published in January as a print volume and an e-book from O’Reilly Media. Mr. Meyers could be accused of bias; if the Fire is a tremendous failure, the market for his manual would be negligible. But he was not paid by Amazon to write it, and the retailer had no control over its contents. Amazon did not even give him a Fire.”
Streitfeld reports, “Mr. Meyers’s verdict, in an e-mail to me: ‘Apple would have never shipped a device like the Fire. It’s got way too many rough edges (sluggish touchscreen, magazine apps that don’t really fit the smaller screen, an easy-to-hit power button). And even little things like how the power cord jiggles when plugged in wouldn’t have made it past the demo room in Cupertino.’”

“Once his manual is finished, Mr. Meyers does not see much of a future for his own Kindle Fire,” Streitfeld reports. “‘Mine’s going back in the box as soon as I’m done,’ he wrote. ‘The iPad 2 is years ahead of it and lets me consume and create with no friction.’”

 

[akonobi]

If people had read enough about the the Kindle Fire before the bought it, I think there would be a lot fewer returns. The reasons I read about people returning the thing are kind of idiotic considering that there is a wealth of information listing KF's quirks and limitations.

As for the user manual author who is returning his KF, he can probably afford 4 or 5 iPads unlike yours truly. Besides, his is just one person's opinion.

 

[roadbloc]

And the return rates?

Wait until the dust settles before getting excited about non-Apple tablets.


Even the guy who wrote the Kindle Fire companion manual is returning it. Just how many of those "1 million per week" customers got hosed?

---------------------------------------------------

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/pulp-friction-the-debate-over-amazons-fire/

‘Kindle Fire: The Missing Manual’ author to return Kindle Fire, keep his ‘years ahead iPad 2

“It is still early days for the Fire. Many were doubtless sold as Christmas gifts, so the true verdict from the masses won’t come for a few weeks,” David Streitfeld writes for The New York Times. “But in the meantime here is another professional evaluation, from someone who has probably used the Kindle more than anyone who does not work for Amazon. Peter Meyers is a digital book consultant who is writing ‘Breaking the Page: Transforming Books and the Reading Experience’ (free download of the first three chapters here). He broke off from that effort last month to write ‘Kindle Fire: The Missing Manual,’ to be published in January as a print volume and an e-book from O’Reilly Media. Mr. Meyers could be accused of bias; if the Fire is a tremendous failure, the market for his manual would be negligible. But he was not paid by Amazon to write it, and the retailer had no control over its contents. Amazon did not even give him a Fire.”
Streitfeld reports, “Mr. Meyers’s verdict, in an e-mail to me: ‘Apple would have never shipped a device like the Fire. It’s got way too many rough edges (sluggish touchscreen, magazine apps that don’t really fit the smaller screen, an easy-to-hit power button). And even little things like how the power cord jiggles when plugged in wouldn’t have made it past the demo room in Cupertino.’”

“Once his manual is finished, Mr. Meyers does not see much of a future for his own Kindle Fire,” Streitfeld reports. “‘Mine’s going back in the box as soon as I’m done,’ he wrote. ‘The iPad 2 is years ahead of it and lets me consume and create with no friction.’”

We all knew you wouldn't agree. I guess all them millions of Kindle users are anecdotal.