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Amazon's Kindle Sells Out In 5.5 Hours

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the kindling-burns-quickly dept.

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.

3 of 417 comments (clear)

  1. $9.99??? Surely you are joking! by macz · · Score: 1, Troll

    "Most" books are $9.99. Maybe if they decayed the price to $1.99 as the new releases aged (like effectively what happens at a half-price bookseller). Plus, I can't keep the content for decades in my attic, to be dusted off and read again when I re-discover the book.

    --
    ...But I digress. TREMBLE PUNY HUMANS!ONE DAY MY SPECIES WILL DESTROY YOU ALL!
  2. What this things seemingly lacks... by Compuser · · Score: 0, Troll

    I do not have the device so I am going from video on Amazon website.
    Here is what the device currently lacks:
    1. Hi-res screen. Some competitors do UXGA (16x12). 8x6 is piddly.
    2. Color. Tech manuals and such have color graphs. Need not be much but at
    least 16-color display is a must.
    3. Must have stylus and ability to attach notes to specific places in text
    (ideally also voice notes).
    4. The video said that when you buy from Amazon store, the data is
    still stored on the server. Local storage is a must for everything from books,
    to annotations.
    5. Faster typing. The video made it look like 100cpm folks will be in pain.
    6. It was not clear whether the device could connect to scientific journals.
    The ability to get authorized through university proxies is a must. This means
    the user must be able to make custom login scripts and update security software.
    7. Affordable price. $400 is about an order of magnitude too high. This is a device
    that lets Amazon sell more books so I would expect it to be a loss leader like some
    game consoles. This must be an impulse buy kind of thing to take over the market.

  3. Re:Reading an LCD by Stochastism · · Score: 0, Troll

    Books are: Most of what you said applies to candles as well, but we still like our electric lights.

    (That's my second candle post today!) Try lighting a candle, or turning on an electric light, during take-off. I think you'll get a similar response to both.

    My point is that the Kindle seems to offer very little over a regular book. The difference between a candle and a lightbulb is huge. The difference between a book and a Kindle is .. well .. regression. Yes, you can download books for $10 a pop. But only after a $400 up front investment (is that before or after sales taxes? I never groked the U.S. habit of *not* advertising the real price). There's been a couple of flippant replies about books being "abacus" technology, but does anyone have a *real* reason why the Kindle could be superior to a good old fashioned book? I mean sure, this is /., but should we really just love technology for technoligies sake?