2011 Kindle sales could top 8 million
Amazon’s Kindle e-reader is reportedly on course to sell more than 8 million units this year. That’s significantly ahead of company expectations, and would mean it was at least competitive with the iPad in terms of unit sales.
The figures comes from Bloomberg, which also notes that Amazon sold around 2.4 million Kindles last year, and had forecast selling 5 million this year. Amazon doesn’t release Kindle sales figures, but has confirmed it makes a significant proportion of total sales. The device regularly appears atop lists of the most sold items on the site, as well as being the most frequently added item to wishlists.
The Bloomberg source is “two people who are aware of the company’s sales projections.” Purely as a guess, I’d suspect that it may simply be that Amazon itself is “leaking” preliminary figures because it wants the good news out there, but doesn’t want the hassle that comes if a publicly traded company officially releases figures that don’t stand up.
There are already a few bloggers suggesting this means the Kindle is as popular as the iPad. That’s highly unlikely to be the case considering that the iPad had confirmed sales of 7.5 million as of the end of September. Take into account the fact that there may have been a disproportionate level of iPad sales at launch, but that it should also sell strongly for Christmas, and the chances are the iPad will outsell the Kindle by at least a 3 to 2 ratio.
Still, there’s a strong argument that far from killing the Kindle, the iPad has indirectly helped Amazon. It’s arguably focused attention on the strengths of the Kindle for people who are primarily interested in a portable reading device. And more importantly, it’s likely one of the main reasons Amazon has cut prices to have the entry level Kindle at $139. That not only puts it firmly in the “impulse buy” category of electronic goods, but also makes it an affordable (if not inexpensive) gift option/
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May 22nd, 2011
Hi Buds and budettes!
I have written a book that features werewolves and a couple of vampires.Itis titled “The Lupine Effect” It will be downloadable on Kindle or IPads etcetera so what price is the best low ball or high ball eg: $9.99 $7.99, $3.99, or $2.99?