“After six months of nothing happening on the Kindle front, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos issued a press release calling the Kindle a ‘huge success’ and a ‘revolutionary’ device. Now, we’re not new to such hype, but the clincher here is he had no numbers, no sales figures and no revenue amounts to support his claim,” Prashanth Cherukuri writes for Seeking Alpha.
“It is very obvious that Amazon’s Kindle is a huge flop. In six months of traveling, I am yet to see a single person on any bus, train or plane with a Kindle in their hands. Contrast that with the iPod or iPhone or even the Sansa, where people can actually be seen using them everywhere,” Cherukuri writes.
“Even if we accept the fairy tale that Bezos is weaving and accept Kindle to be a resounding success, the difference to Amazon’s bottom line revenues will be 3%. JUST 3%,” Cherukuri writes.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “David” for the heads up.]
It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore. – Apple CEO Steve Jobs remarking on Amazon’ Kindle, January 15, 2008
I’m one of the 60% that has read more than one book and I’ll be looking forward to downloading books onto my iPhone. I would never buy a Kindle, just as I would never buy a GPS. In fact I hope to never buy a single purpose gadget ever again. Whether this works out depends on how soon Apple can get a decent camera into the iPhone. If it takes more than 24 months, it’s a problem. By then I’ll be thinking about upgrading the iPhone 3G I’m about to buy.
Last weekend I was at the Long Beach airport and saw 5 people in a very small space with a Kindle. My Kindle made it 6! I was shocked to see that many in one place. I ride BART in the SF Bay Area and have only seen 1 other person besides myself with one.
I love the KINDLE and have read a lot of books off it since its release in Nov 2007!
I read all the time, on my iPhone. Even PDF formatted books…..
People who like books are generally fans of low tech. And they generally like the feel of dead pine trees in their hands.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
@ericdano?
How to you store PDFs on the iPhone? Can it be done the same way on an iPod Touch?
I’m just curious. I’d like to carry some PDF books on mine.
i know it is popular with the over 60 set…..
While I disagree with Steve Jobs’ statement, as I read an average of 6-8 books a week, I will not buy a Kindle. I like books, and I would read on my iPhone.
the big problem with kindle is the need to be in an area with sprint coverage. with it the entire thing is almost useless.
To be fair, the Kindle is not a mass-market product. It doesn’t have to be to be a success, and Steve Jobs knows that. I mean, look at the iPhone. He set the success bar at 1% of the global cellphone market. If you set the bar for the Kindle at 1% of the US public, about 3 million, then who cares if 40% read less than 1 book a year. I mean, the Kindle isn’t just about books, it’s also magazines and newspapers.
Having said that, I read dozens of books in a year, and have no interest in getting a Kindle.
Steve Jobs is not always correct, so it would be nice if MDN could use their own brain cells more often.
Most people love reading, but most won’t get a Kindle. There, that was easy!
I’ve read a few thousand books, but would never consider getting a Kindle. Books are handy, durable, high res, and they smell good.
I emailed a pdf version of a book to my Yahoo account on my iPhone, and have been working through that. Works okay, but as Famous Grouse observed, when you can have a book handy as an add-on to an existing device, that is best.
Another device; no.
These press releases by Amazon about how they are SOLD OUT and showing huge palettes of them in their warehouse are are artificial to make it seem as though everyone’s got one.
The Kindle is a pretty impressive device. It’s not perfect, and it lacks the elegance of any Apple product, but it’s still a fine device and I really enjoy using it.
The fact that a new product is only 3% of Amazon’s bottom line does not make it a failure. Has the iPhone–which had a lot of hype and a six month head start–topped 3% or 5% of Apple’s bottom line? I suspect not, not least b/c it’s being accounted for on a subscription basis. But that does not make it a failure either.
Boy, I wish Apple would come out w/ a reading device!
“How to you store PDFs on the iPhone?”
Via email attachments. Just wait until 11 July for dozens of book readers for the iPhone/iTouch – and backlit in colour!
Ironic that Steve Jobs helmed the creation of the iPhone which turned me into an avid reader. I hate to sit at a desk and read from a computer screen and I wasn’t fond of books. The iPhone was the perfect compromise, always ready and right there in my pocket. After jumpstarting my interest with the many wonderful things I read daily using Safari over the past year, I’m now digesting all forms of print like never before. I swear this never would’ve happened if it wasn’t for the iPhone.
My cousin has both the Kindle and Sony reader (because he can). The Sony wins easily in user interface. I bought his old Sony so he could by a newer one (slightly better interface and contrast).
My only real complaint with it is that has Windows only software to purchase and download to the reader. Other than that, I am completely satisfied with the Sony.
If Steve Jobs says that nobody reads.. damn it.. then nobody reads… Don’t think about it.. just accept it as fact.
Fact is.. he is correct.. the majority of people don’t read. The majority of people are also stupid…. use windows.. and eat macdonalds… doesn’t mean health food, literacy… or even Macs (smaller market share) are flops.. just catered to a different type of person.
@Grifterus:
You can find books all over the place (out of copyright at guttenberg.org, for example). Then open in textEdit, print to pdf, and email that file to yourself.
Works pretty well. I grade literally thousands of pages for my screen writing class every semester, and the iPhone has made doing so MUCH easier and more convenient over the past year. Thanks, Apple!
Another way to put PDFs on the iPhone (other than e-mail, or waiting for the 2.0 software) is to use iPhoneView from Ecamm.
Ever since the iPod came out, I switched 90% of my reading from my eyes to my ears. I now probably listen to 4 audiobooks a month on my iPhone, primarily during my commute. I could never find that much time to read books if I had to actually read them with my eyes.
@bluegirl
While I disagree with Steve Jobs’ statement, as I read an average of 6-8 books a week
Steve Jobs didn’t say that YOU don’t read, he said, “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year”
@Greg…
If you were in Long Beach, CA airport last weekend, your fellow travelers were likely attending the American Library Association annual conference and were publishers, editors, journalists and library staff. Agents and editors are using the Kindle and Sony reader for its ability to pack dozens of manuscripts for review into a small device. They are not the “readers” that the market needs to adopt eBooks. It’s like finding metric tools at a BMW garage.
When SJ says people don’t read anymore, he reveals that he hasn’t been to the beach or a park or a Barnes and Noble recently.
I love to read. I just don’t get the idea of reading from a skinny etch-a-sketch looking thingy.
And… what happens to it when I drop it in the sand?
Small world — I just got a Kindle yesterday. So far, I love it.
Yeah, it has an 80s Apple prototype look. And the buttons are a tad kludgy. And the screen isn’t backlit. Despite all that, it’s an interesting first-generation effort, primarily due to the easy Amazon integration via wireless.
As a pushing-50er, I can tell you that the ability to make any book into a large-print edition is a killer feature. You young punks will understand someday…
I’m happy with Kindle, and hopeful that Amazon sells enough of ’em to come out with a refined 2.0 version.
Unless Apple releases the oft-rumored Tablet Mac and it comes with…
Nah…never mind.
Jobs is wrong, people read, just not books.
If you are reading this post, you are probably like me. Reading posts, replying and reading news articles, etc… I take up my hours reading news, learning new information on new topics, technology or on politics – not books.
iPhone and the web w/Safari onboard is built for the new type of “informational” reading if you will – not for novels.