Kindles Rarer Than Leopards or Lamborghinis
I read in today’s news TechCrunch as reporting 240,000 units have sold; and the number of customer reviews have passed 4,000 on Amazon.com’s Web site. And now I’m told that Amazon could sell 380,000 units in 2008.
Well, that just sounds like hyperbole to me and I’ll tell you why: I have not yet met a single person who owns one – and I live in a city of about six million people, regularly fraternize with book lovers, and travel frequently. I've seen more exotic cars in the past ten months -- Ferraris, Bentleys, Lamborghinis -- than Kindles.
Emphasis added by me.
I don't know how many Sony Readers have been sold, but I've seen two in the wild. One on a city street (at dusk!, using reflected streetlamp lighting) and one on the subway.
I have yet to see a Kindle in person.
Diverse Views on the Kindle
Based on the selections of books available via Amazon, I have a hard time imagining a lot of literary readers buying a Kindle. At least not now. In addition to making a device that’s way more sleek and sexy, Amazon should heavily recruit content providers. Otherwise some other outlet—such as Apple—could come along and win the ebook race so to speak, not just with a better device, but by providing the audience that could make this scene explode with the type of books they want to read.
Emphasis added by me.
Yeah, he gets some of it.
Sidenote: What I am finding fascinating in all the ebook coverage I encounter is the lack of Microsoft! They don't even factor into the debate any longer.
Previously here:
The Kindle Revolution Ain't Happening
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