Amazon has finally announced what we all have been fearing all along. Amazon Kindle is now formally out of stock and Amazon claims that the item will come after December 24th. What that really means is you are probably going to get your Kindle sometime in January if you pick it up now. The last time Amazon put up such a note folks had to wait 45 days at minimum to get their Kindles. I personally believe that Amazon not being able to meet the demand of its customers at this time of the year only hurts its cause. Folks have practically no incentive to buy the Kindle for this holiday season, and they won’t get it in a couple of months anyway, so why bother? Unless Amazon is selling millions of Kindle in this period, there is no excuse for making folks wait a month or two to get their orders. Not for a mature product like Kindle anyway…

Your take: does Amazon’s inability to fulfil Kindle orders on time hurt its cause?

I don’t know about you but I have always been wanting to know about those defective Kindles that get refurbished. There were rumors around that Amazon was not going to release the refurbished Kindles in order to encourage folks to buy the device in new condition. Well, the wait is not over. Refurbished Kindles have found their way to Amazon marketplace. Now you can get them for $329.00 (which is not that great of a discount). 

I am glad that Amazon is finally making refurbished Kindles available for folks who don’t afford to pay $360 for the new Kindles. However, the refurbished price seems to be awfully high. I always expected the refurbished Kindles to be priced in $200-$250 range, but it seems even at $329, Amazon will find enough customers to be happy with their sales numbers.

I don’t know about you but I have waited a year for Amazon Customer Vote promotion. Basically, this is Amazon’s most popular promotion every year which allows a lucky few to save a ton on best selling items on Amazon. This year we have PS3, hot GPS, HDTVs, and mini laptops for sale, but Amazon customers don’t get to vote for the Kindle. I was hoping for Amazon to have 100 Kindles available for $99 each, and based on the deals that I have seen that wouldn’t have been outrageous. So why did Amazon leave Kindle out of its Customer Vote promotion?

No one knows for sure. It could be that Kindle is out of stock and folks won’t want to buy it even if it’s going for $99, having to wait a couple of months to get it. It could be that it’s so hot right now that folks would pay $359 for it without even thinking twice. But could it be that folks rather buy a PS3 instead of a Kindle for the holiday season?

Either way, Kindle is left out of the biggest Amazon promotion of the year. Disappointing? Yes! Maybe, just maybe, Amazon will offer another promotion on Kindle before the year’s end. Besides, the current deals are not that bad either.

You decide: should Amazon Kindle be a part of Amazon Customer Vote promotion?

Amazon Kindle started going out of stock a while ago. You could see that Amazon was telling folks they had to wait 3 weeks to get their Kindle. Now Amazon is claiming that you need to wait 11 weeks(!) to get your hands on Kindle.

I am personally glad that I picked up a couple for the Christmas way back. But at the same time, I feel bad for folks who missed out. I don’t know how accurate these numbers are but Amazon does usually over-shoot, which means if you get your Kindle now, you may get it before the new year’s eve.

Has anybody here missed out?

I have got to admit that I have been surprised by Amazon’s persistence on not working on deals to give customers discount on their Kindles. If you haven’t seen it, Amazon has been promoting their new special offer for the iPod Touch:

The offer basically gives $100 off on eligible purchases when you sign up for Audible services for a year. Unfortunately, Kindle is not among the devices that are eligible for this deal. Now let’s not forget taht this deal doesn’t exactly give you $100 off for nothing. You will have to pay $14.95 a month for your Audible subscription. But after all is said and done, you will save $100 on your total.

Is Amazon admitting that folks don’t listen to audio-books on Kindle?

Oprah endorsing Amazon Kindle was a big thing. At least that was the logical expectations when a heavyweight such as Oprah calls Kindle one the “best gadgets” she has ever had. But analysts are claiming that Oprah’s endorsement may not matter to Amazon until 2010!

Oprah’s endorsement has had some effect. And I think the effects will be more significant than some of the naysayers expect them to be. I have been a big fan of Amazon Kindle since day one, but I see two fundamental challenges for Amazon in the upcoming month:

• Economy
• Culture

The economy has hit and has hit companies hard. The tech companies are now feeling the effects (Sun Microsystems is cutting force and more companies will follow suit). Folks simply do not have money to spend on Kindle (possible solution: offering free interest financing for 12 months, lowering the price, an alternative monthly fee structure).

Many folks simply do not take Kindle seriously. We have gotten used to paper books, and sometimes it is hard to breakaway from old habits. Amazon needs to find ways to encourage folks to adopt Kindle. That could be done with major book promotions, early book releases, exclusive content, free starter content packs, and content distribution promotions.

Amazon Kindle is a wonderful device, but if people fail to justify paying $350 for it, then Amazon’s got a big problem. In these tough times, Amazon needs to bring its innovative ways to product management and content distribution. If not, even the mighty Oprah can’t turn the tide.

I got to admit. I have always doubted Oprah’s hype, and I have always been prove wrong. This lady can sell, and a lot of folks just buy things that she says you should buy. Now. I may have had some disagreements with her about some of the items that she has recommended in the past, but recommending Kindle was just right on the money.

But she did more than that. For a while, she was giving $50 off on Kindle on her site. That offer expired a few days ago, but I’d be interested to see how many folks bought the $300 Kindle. I am sure Oprah has gotten paid handsomely for her recommendation, so the sales bump better be good. She did come through for Barack. Will she for Kindle?

Sony PRS-700BC is the new answer to Amazon Kindle’s dilemma for Sony. Sony did come out with a reader way before Amazon, but Kindle has jumped ahead of Sony Reader by offering features such as Wi-Fi connection, and the convenience of buying from Amazon store.

Well, if you have been waiting for an alternative to Amazon Kindle, you will get your chance on 11/14. I will have a preview of the device before then, but what I like about PRS-700BC is the way Sony is promoting it. 100 free ebooks are included with this device (which I think is an idea Amazon should use for Kindle 2.0). Stay tuned for the preview.

There is some bad news for folks who are hoping to get the Kindle for the holiday season. Now the good news is that it’s just happened which means you can still get fairly in front of the queue by getting your Kindles now. I remember when I bought my Kindle. Even a day made a big difference then. Kindle used to ship in batches then which meant a day of difference could have put you in a different batch. I am not sure how high the demand for Kindle is now but it should be enough to delay orders by a couple of weeks.

I am sure you have of this iPhone application that allows you to read eBooks on your iPhone. Stanza has outperformed Amazon Kindle, but does that mean Amazon is in trouble as some are suggesting?

I personally think Stanza’s market and Amazon Kindle’s market are totally different. You can’t honestly tell me that folks read long books on the iPhone on a daily basis. I admit that I have read a book or two on my iPhone when I have been on a trip, but the screen is very small, and I just don’t like the experience of reading on a mobile phone (no matter how shiny it is).

So should Amazon go Open source to compete with device such as the iPhone? I think they should. Having a community of developers contributing to the Kindle platform only helps, but Amazon doesn’t need to be the next iPhone. I don’t see any direct competition here, do you? Sure. Both of these devices may be competing for our cash, but I wouldn’t abandon Kindle to buy the iPhone or vice versa.