Amazon.com announced Nov. 30 that November was
the "best sales month ever" for its Kindle e-Reader—even before the
arrival of Web-sales-heavy Cyber Monday, the first Monday after the long
Thanksgiving weekend.
While not specifying what those "best ever" sales numbers were, Ian
Freed, vice president of Amazon Kindle, said in a statement, "We're seeing
lots of people buying from one to a handful of Kindles as gifts for friends or
family, as well as many businesses and other organizations buying Kindles in
large quantities for their employees or customers."
In the statement, Amazon.com revealed that the Kindle—an image of which is the
first thing presented to visitors on the Amazon.com Website—is the site's No. 1
selling product across all product categories.
The Kindle enables readers to wirelessly purchase and download books, magazines,
newspapers and more via 3G or Wi-Fi. It's priced at $259 and features a 6-inch
display that mimics the look of ink on paper.
The gloating surely came across loud and clear to e-reader competitors, which,
more than simply working to compete against the Kindle, have found themselves
struggling to meet demand in time to take advantage of holiday shopping
dollars.
Barnes & Noble has introduced an e-reader for the holidays, the Nook, which
features a 7-inch touch screen display and is also priced at $259. The device,
however, has been slower to arrive than anticipated, and while Barnes
& Noble says Nook demonstration units will be available in stores beginning
Dec. 7, only customers who pre-ordered the device should expect one in time
for the holidays.
Reuters reported on Nov. 30 that both
Barnes & Noble and Sony sent letters to customers stating that, due to high
demand, they had sold out of e-readers. Further, Barnes & Noble said it
would delay the shipment of devices to stores as it works to provide preordered
Nooks.
Sony's
Daily Edition e-reader is Wi-Fi-enabled, features a 7-inch touch screen and
is priced at $399.99.
"The number of people that signed up ... to be notified of the Daily's
availability exceeded our expectations over the last few months and we expect
high demand now that it's available," Sony spokesperson Kyle Austin told
Reuters on Nov. 19.
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