Amazon's Kindle Sells Out In 5.5 Hours

necro81 writes "As reported on Engadget, Amazon's Kindle e-book reader has sold out. Charlie Rose's interview with Jeff Bezos reveals that the Kindle sold out within just 5-1/2 hours of going on sale. Amazon hasn't revealed how many it had in stock at launch, so it may just be that they didn't anticipate early demand. A check of the Kindle's product page shows that more will be rolling out starting December 3rd." Wired also has a brief head-to-head of the more prominent ebook readers and PCWorld has a review of the new gadget from Amazon.

Comments

Low production run?

[Jackdaw Rookery]

I wonder how many units were made available.

I somehow doubt it is a case of 'we made lots, but demand outstripped supply'. More likely this was a limited production run to test the waters.

Re:Low production run?

[dbolger]

Call me a cynic, but I'd say its more likely a case of a limited production run so they can get sites like Slashdot to report how they sold out in just 5.5 hours.

Re:Low production run?

[yakumo.unr]

I'd reserve judgement till you'd personally experienced an 800x600 eInk display really (such as the one Kimble uses), it's considerably different to any LCD/CRT with regards to eyestrain, how your eyes will perceive the resolution.

Weird behavior between pages

[Besna]

The Sony reader had a long latency to flip a page, as well as some stuff going on with the ink rearranging itself. If one could just flip fast without any image artifacts, it would be great. Most people will want color, but I think this is more important.

Two Things

[Enderandrew]

1. There are always a number of people with "state-of-the-art-addiction" who must have the hot new gadget.

2. There are always people looking to profit from the above people, who jump on these product launches to then turn around and sell the product on Ebay.

Beyond that I wouldn't read too much into this just yet. The Kindle may be a success, or a flop. All we know is that it a newly hyped gadget that sold out at launch, like most new hot gadgets.

Front Page of Amazon

[phantomcircuit]

Well yeah it was the front page of amazon, yeah the entire front page.

Basically the best advertising that any device could have.

Re:DRM Suckage

[QuantumG]

No. E-Books has been buried for long enough. It is time to accept this technology into our lives.

Crack it.

Re:Reading an LCD

[Stochastism]

The e-ink is the only thing going for this critter of a device. The old saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" comes to mind. Books are:

• Proven: they have a 600 year history of mass production.
• Robust: at worst, they fall apart after 20 years or two toddlers.
• Reliable: the words don't dissapear if it gets too hot/cold/wet/dry or an EMP event occurs.
• Archival attributes: we will still be able to read in 100 years, but we might not be able to open DRM protected files.
• Portable: they are more pocket sized than Kindle.
• Batteries not included: because you don't need any.
• Transferable: they have resale value including content... legally.
• High contrast: higher even than e-ink.
• Flammability: despite the name, Kindle's probably don't burn well. A definite negative for the Puritan at heart.
• Light weight: unless you get the hard-back edition.
• Accessible: they don't require a network-connection, so they work all over the world.

Re:Reading an LCD

[pushing-robot]

So... you're saying that a book has all the advantages of an abacus?

Re:DRM Suckage

[jmorris42]

> Crack it.

Why? It is a joke. The BOM on the thing would run you less than $200 quantity one and I seriously doubt Amazon paid $100. Most of the sticker price is an all up front subscription to their cellular based wireless network that probably isn't even available out here in flyover country where I live. So if yuu don't value the handcuffs to the Amazon Store that why would you bother buying one just to hack it?

No, we need to design our own. There ain't squat in one hardware wise. No wireless (eats battery like crazy) and two SD slots (for easy copy action!) along with the ability to read PDF files. But first e-paper tech needs to finish developing. Current incarnations lack the resolution of a cheap laser printer, to say nothing of commercial printing and the screen refresh speeds blow goats. And color would really be helpful along with a touchscreen UI.

But like all things tech these issues will be solved after enough early adopters with big wallets and small brains spend insane amounts of cash on not ready for prime time hardware that won't even be compatible with whatever ends up becoming the standard. Then I'll buy one. :)

I still say OLPC's XO laptop is better :)

[timothy]

More versatile, has a camera, reads a wider variety of formats. It's a (funny little, purpose-built, not-your-ordinary) *laptop*, but it has a book-reading mode and a 200dpi screen (in monochrome mode).

A bit bigger than the Kindle, sure, but sure seems like the one I'd rather have in my backpack / fallout shelter / carry-on bag. After all, does the Kindle have a game pad? :)

timothy

Re:DRM Suckage

[Kadin2048]

Every email to the device costs $0.10; it's not free. (You can transfer documents for free to it via USB, I think, but this is a whole lot less convenient.)

Also, keep in mind that when they say "lifetime free access to Wikipedia," they don't really mean your lifetime, or even their lifetime, but merely the lifetime of their business model. If at some point down the road these things stop making money for them, that cell connection is going to stop working, too. (And given the short lifespans of cell technologies, I wouldn't expect this thing to work with the cell network for more than a few years, a decade at most, before Sprint forces an upgrade to some new system. I have piles of old handsets sitting around my house as a testament to these forced upgrades that they push through every so often.)

I think this thing is interesting, and it's the best effort at e-books so far, but it's still really, really bleeding edge. Personally I just can't justify shelling out four bills to be what seems suspiciously like a public beta.