Oprah ruins Christmas for Kindle hopefuls
By Dave Jeyes
Many avid readers have a place for Amazon’s Kindle eBook reader at the top of their wish lists. However, they are very likely to be disappointed about what’s not under their Christmas tree this year.
For the second year running, Amazon has no stock of Kindle readers available for purchase during the holiday shopping season. In fact, the company won’t have any available until mid-February.
One might ask what Oprah has to do with the disappearance of the eBook Reader from Amazon’s stock. Well she didn’t actually buy up every last Kindle with the miserly intent of ruining Christmas for boys and girls everywhere.
The problem started at the end of this past October on the Oprah Winfrey show. Oprah had gotten her hands on the industry-leading Kindle eBook reader and mentioned it on her show.
In fact, Oprah didn’t just mention the Kindle as a new-fangled piece of interesting techno-wizardry, she really likes it. Oprah Winfrey went so far as to call the device, “life-changing.”
It’s generally no big deal when someone on television calls a new product life-changing. We see so many commercials and product placements on the small screen that we tend to ignore them altogether.
Obviously we’re not just talking about any television personality here; we’re talking about the Big “O.” When she speaks, millions of people in households across the globe listen closely.
Oprah’s “favorite new gadget” isn’t cheap either. At a price point of $359, it’s not generally something you would normally consider an impulse purchase.
So what are the voracious readers in Kindle-free homes across the country to do for the holiday season? They could opt for a similar eBook Reader from Sony.
However, the Sony eBook Reader isn’t likely to bring the same look of joy onto the face of a bookworm when opened by the tree. Sony only carries about 57 thousand titles compared to Amazon’s over 200 thousand. Plus, it’s almost, kind of like, but not quite a Kindle.
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December 5th, 2008
As of the current time (3:56 am EST), refurbished Kindles, http://www.tinyurl.com/RefurbKindle, are back in stock at Amazon and still $329. Dozens have been sold and shipped this week, but they keep rolling in and back out again. They won’t last, so order one while you can. If you miss one this morning, be sure to read my post about playing Kindle Lotto:
http://beesontheknob.blogspot.com/2008/12/kindle-lotto-score-kindle-by-christmas.html
You too can have a bright shiny Kindle under the tree this year, and without having to pay the exorbitant prices on eBay.