Amazon Kindle is a wonderful device. It is a potentially game changer and has rekindled the ebook market’s fire. Kindle is a portable and cost saving for consumers, and as an always connected device is sure to be the man’s next best friend on trips and on the go. But why is Amazon hiding the sales numbers of Kindle? Here are a few reasons that I can think of, which by the way may or may not be true:

• Amazon has failed to sell enough Kindles and they are afraid that revealing the numbers will blow apart all the hype that they have had for Amazon Kindle. After all, Amazon Kindle can’t be a revolutionary and game changing device unless its in people’s hands. If the number is too low, then that would be extremely disappointing not to the fans, but also to the investors and other stakeholders.
• Going back to the first point, Amazon could have intentionally released Kindle slowly to create the illusion that it is in high demand. But with no real numbers to back them up, the gig is up. Amazon may have delayed the shipments to create artificial demand, but that can’t last forever.
• Amazon’s failure to provide its customers with timely delivery will even look worse if the numbers are out. If the numbers are very low, then Amazon will look extremely bad as it shouldn’t take 30 to 60 days to ship Amazon Kindles.
• It could be that Amazon is buying time. Somehow someway they may be waiting for Kindle to catch fire, but this also would not work as the longer Amazon goes without disclosing the sales numbers, the more discouraged people get about the future of Kindle.

Amazon Kindle is a great device, but without a community of people using it, it will die a quick death. I put Kindle up there with the iPhone, but Amazon has not been able to generate enough buzz around the Kindle. I still get surprised when I have to explain to people what the Kindle is and how it’s worth $399 that Amazon is charging. I know that Jeff is behind Kindle, but I am not sure Amazon can sustain Kindle without a true big community of users. Maybe Amazon will try one from Apple’s handbook: price cut!

Finally, after months of waiting Amazon Kindle is in stock and eligible for one-day shipping. No queue, no waiting time whatsoever. It’s almost like a dream as we used to wait days and weeks to get a message from Amazon about the availability of this awesome product. Well, Kindle away folks before all these are gone. While I anticipate Amazon to have some available in stock, you don’t want to wait for Kindle to go out of stock again.

You can’t do anything but feel for some of Amazon Kindle customers. Some have been waiting for close to two months to get their Amazon Kindles, and like many they don’t understand why Amazon is offering a product that is not going to be available for months. The good news is that Amazon Kindle has received a very strong support from avid readers which means we will see a Kindle 2.0. The bad news is that some of Amazon loyal customers are absolutely gutted with the company which means we could see a negative word of mouth marketing going against Amazon unless they start delivering those Kindles. Even Nintendo Wii did not have such long delivery delays.

The quick answer is yes. But there is a limit as far as how many times you can share the same content with another Kindle (physically, using a memory card for example) registered under the same account. The limit seems to be 6 times at this point. In other words, you can’t keep putting it one and deleting content and expect them to work. Of course, you can download content for an unlimited number of times, which is another story.

That’s the main question that Amazon needs to answer to have any chance of gaining traction with its Kindle ebook reader. Amazon Kindle is a wonderful little gadget that is very handy for those of us who read almost all the time, regardless of where we are. But many are arguing that Amazon is charging too much for eBooks. While Amazon has stuck with $9.99 per eBook for most books, there are some eBooks that are going for $20, $30 or more on Amaozn. Those are prices that I don’t think people are ready to pay for an eBook. Not now any way.

(more…)

It seems like it to be honest. Writing a book is like taking a snapshot of the industry you are writing about at that very time. Let’s say that you are writing about the ever changing search industry. The tips that you are giving to your users could be outdated in the matter of weeks, but your book stays the same way until you decide to publish the next edition. At some point people are going to stop buying your old book, and you are pretty much stuck with your publisher to get your new edition rolling. I think that’s why many people are now moving from the fixed-fee business model to the subscription-based business model.

Take Aaron Wall for instance. He has probably the best search engine optimization book in the industry. To be fair to him, he did update his eBook numerous times to keep offering his students the latest info on search engine optimization. But in the end you are fighting the inevitable. The effort that goes behind updating a book numerous times is too much to be quantified by a one-time payment. Think about it. If Aaron asked you to pay a one-time $1000 fee for his book, would you? If you are a SEO freak, you probably will. But paying a $1000 for a book seems unreasonable. That’s where the subscription model comes in. You can charge a monthly fee of let’s say $30 and constantly provide your readers with up to date information. The best thing about this is that the readers are not stuck with old content. At the same time, the writers can get paid for their effort to keep their books up-to-date. Book on demand is not where software on demand is right now, but you can expect it to catch fire in the near future especially with devices such as Amazon Kindle.

So now that Amazon.com is shipping Kindles faster, I doubt eBays can ask for the amounts they were asking a few weeks back. But if you need to have a Kindle right now, you have a few options:

One way to go is of course eBay. I think you will be able to get a Kindle for as low as $420 on eBay depending on your luck. You want to make sure you are getting a healthy Kindle though as you don’t want to spend days sending the Kindle back and waiting for a replacement. Also, make sure you don’t get ripped off by people who claim your money and don’t send you your product.

Craigslist is another way to go if you are disparate to get a Kindle. You can search for Kindles in your local community and you may get lucky to find a buyer who’s feeling a buyer’s remorse with his/her Kindle (though that is hard to believe). Again, one needs to be aware of the scammish offers on Craigslist.

But you can also choose to wait for a Kindle from Amazon. This option probably takes the longest but is the surest bet out there. It only takes a month to get your Kindle and shipping is free too. Besides, you know that you are less likely to end up with a defective item if you buy it directly from Amazon. If you are on fire and need a Kindle to put it off, then this option won’t work for you. Otherwise, save your money and buy from Amazon.

Now when you hear about the latest gadgets, you don’t expect to see the older generation and baby boomer generation to be among the early adopters. But that is what has happened with the Amazon Kindle. To be quite honest, books are now competing against the Internet, games, and all kinds of other 21st century activities that were not available to our grand fathers. So it is pretty much given that the fairly older (wiser) generation would put more value on reading and learning new things as they go along. Kindle is unique as it satisfies both the gadget-crazed and fairly senior citizens at the same time. Amazon Kindle is cool and offers many hot features that any gadget fan would look for in a gadget (e.g. mp3 play, GPS, games). But at the same time, Kindle makes it convenient to buy books and read them immediately. In addition, you can change the font, use a dictionary, check Wikipedia, and do all kinds of neat stuff with Kindle. So instead of dealing with a useless gadgets that only appeals to teenagers or people in their 20s, Amazon has created a learning/reading tool that appeals to the people of all ages. Forget the early-adopter late-adopter mambo jumbo. When it comes to Kindle you are either an adopter or a laggard.

I remember seeing Kindle go for $600 on eBay a couple months ago, but I wonder how many people actually paid that or more to get their hands on their Kindles. In your opinion, is it worth paying $500-600 on eBay to get Kindle in 2 weeks rather than 2 months?

 Loading …

As we move deep into the digital publishing era, it is obvious that paper newspapers have so much trouble keeping up with their digital counterparts. Newspapers and magazines have been around for years, and it has become a habit of people to pick them up on their way to work or even receive it at work. However, with podcasts and audio newspapers around, consumers are starting to move away from traditional newspapers. Now with Kindle around, you can bet that many will relish the idea of subscribing to magazines and e-newspapers online and get them on their Kindle. Sure, it’s not audio,but not everyone likes audio. Besides, it’s not like you want to listen to every story that is out there, and with Kindle you get to just skim through the news. Now, I am not suggesting that eBooks will beat audiobooks or the other way around, but I find it hard to believe that papers can compete with either audio or e-books.