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Source Claims 240K Kindles Sold

Posted by kdawson on from the drm-and-all dept.

Naturalist writes "Exact data on (the Linux-powered) Kindle sales figures have been hard to come by. Amazon is notoriously tight-lipped about it, and although CEO Jeff Bezos did give some Kindle-related information back in July, the company has yet to break out how many readers it has sold to date. Now TechCrunch claims to have spoken to a source close to Amazon with direct knowledge of the company's sales figures. According to this unnamed source, Amazon has sold 240,000 Kindles to date, for an estimated hardware revenue between $86 million and $96 million; media sales would push the total above $100M." We've been following the Kindle since its launch nine months ago.

3 of 176 comments (clear)

  1. ugh by bcrowell · · Score: 4, Insightful
    It's fine that a lot of people seem to like the thing. Reasons I'm not interested:
    • $360 is way too much.
    • DRM.
    • The methods for importing PDF files sound like a hassle.
    • The TOU say you can't sell or give away your books.
    • There are only 145,000 books available. That sounds like a lot, but it's really not.

    I can see how it could come in handy if you're on vacation and want to travel light, but IMO that's not nearly enough to overcome the negatives. I'll probably get an e-book reader in 2030 or something. There's no rush. First I want to see someone get it right.

    --
    Find free books.
  2. Re:You know its slashdot when it's.. by sunderland56 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    For anyone who has worked in banking in the US, M means thousand, and MM means million.

    The target audience of slashdot is geeks - specifically, engineering/computer geeks. This audience uses K for thousand.

    If you want to use M for thousand on bankerdot.org, sure, go for it.

  3. Amazon wants Kindle to fail? by DeathSquid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Books are cheap in the U.S. and people have a lot of room to store them, so Kindle is definitely a niche product in its domestic market. However, in other countries books are expensive and often space is at a premium. Kindle offers huge advantages, and would be wildly successful in these markets.

    How does Amazon respond to this market need? They refuse point blank to sell kindle devices or media to anyone outside North America.

    Sure, whispernet is NA only. But a USB connection works just as well...

    What sane company ignores its largest potential market? And when it does, the writing is on the wall. If I was a shareholder, I would be livid.

    So the only question that remains is why Kindle is being set up for failure? Simple incompetence? Xenophobia? Or something more subtle?