Amazon says 2011 was best holiday yet for Kindle family, still won't reveal sales
Amazon once again on Thursday touted the success of its Kindle lineup, including the new Kindle Fire, but declined to get into specifics on sales figures.
As it revealed earlier this month, Amazon once again said that it has sold more than a million devices from the Kindle family per week in the holiday shopping season. The online retailer went slightly further and said that "well over 1 million" Kindle devices were sold each week in December, but did not give any greater specifics.
The Kindle Fire, Amazon's new color touchscreen tablet, also remains the best selling, most gifted and most wished for product among the millions of items available at Amazon. It's also the best-selling product on Amazon.com's mobile website and across all of its mobile applications.
Sales of the Kindle Fire were followed by the Kindle Touch and entry-level Kindle, making up the top three selling items at all of Amazon. Christmas Day was also the biggest day ever for Kindle book downloads.
"We are grateful to our customers worldwide for making this the best holiday ever for Kindle," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO. "And in a huge milestone for independent publishing, we’d also like to congratulate Darcie Chan, the author of 'The Mill River Recluse,' and Chris Culver, the author of 'The Abbey,' for writing two of the best-selling Kindle books of the year."
Those authors both published their titles independently using Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, and became the No. 1 and No. 4 best-selling Kindle books released in 2011.
One estimate issued earlier this month said Amazon would ship 3.9 million units of the Kindle Fire during the holiday shopping season. Apple, meanwhile, is expected to have a record breaking quarter, topping the 11.2 million iPad sales it achieved last quarter.
Some have suggested that the low $199 price of the Kindle Fire will have a negative effect on Apple and sales of its iPad, though Apple executives have indicated they are not concerned about the device, which they believe will further fragment the Android platform.
Though the Kindle Fire is believed to have gotten off to a strong start, one usability study found that Amazon's first touchscreen tablet has a "disappointingly poor user experience," particularly for Web browsing and magazine reading. Amazon already issued an update last week to address some of those concerns, specifically input lag.
As it revealed earlier this month, Amazon once again said that it has sold more than a million devices from the Kindle family per week in the holiday shopping season. The online retailer went slightly further and said that "well over 1 million" Kindle devices were sold each week in December, but did not give any greater specifics.
The Kindle Fire, Amazon's new color touchscreen tablet, also remains the best selling, most gifted and most wished for product among the millions of items available at Amazon. It's also the best-selling product on Amazon.com's mobile website and across all of its mobile applications.
Sales of the Kindle Fire were followed by the Kindle Touch and entry-level Kindle, making up the top three selling items at all of Amazon. Christmas Day was also the biggest day ever for Kindle book downloads.
"We are grateful to our customers worldwide for making this the best holiday ever for Kindle," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO. "And in a huge milestone for independent publishing, we’d also like to congratulate Darcie Chan, the author of 'The Mill River Recluse,' and Chris Culver, the author of 'The Abbey,' for writing two of the best-selling Kindle books of the year."
Those authors both published their titles independently using Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, and became the No. 1 and No. 4 best-selling Kindle books released in 2011.
One estimate issued earlier this month said Amazon would ship 3.9 million units of the Kindle Fire during the holiday shopping season. Apple, meanwhile, is expected to have a record breaking quarter, topping the 11.2 million iPad sales it achieved last quarter.
Some have suggested that the low $199 price of the Kindle Fire will have a negative effect on Apple and sales of its iPad, though Apple executives have indicated they are not concerned about the device, which they believe will further fragment the Android platform.
Though the Kindle Fire is believed to have gotten off to a strong start, one usability study found that Amazon's first touchscreen tablet has a "disappointingly poor user experience," particularly for Web browsing and magazine reading. Amazon already issued an update last week to address some of those concerns, specifically input lag.
Comments
At more than twice the price.
"? Okay, can you tell us how many you sold?"
"? No."
My only complaint is that the Fire is associated to my account and credit card with no way of changing that.
So does this mean one can never resell their Kindle Fire?
Apple should start a program where disappointed Kindle owners can trade in their Fires for iPads. Making Kindle Fire = disappointment is a great strategic move for Apple. Hopefully, it will join the Zune in the graveyard of would-be killers.
amazon pulled off a good one on apple. usually it take apple 3-4 years to come out with a low end product in a new product line. amazon beat them to it. next year it's going to be a 10" kindle for $199
it's good enough to do what it's made for for a nice price which is why it's selling
Christ, they still do not even report unit volumes
One estimate issued earlier this month said Apple would ship 3.9 million units of the Kindle Fire during the holiday shopping season.
I wasn't aware of Apple's new strategy to ship Kindle Fires as well. Boy, do I miss Steve...
Ah, thanks for the correction. Fortunately just a typo.
1 million a week. So 4 million in December. Heck it took Apple a couple of days to sell that many iPads.....
At more than twice the price.
Can you read? That's 1 million "Kindles" not "Kindle Fire".
Sorry, e-readers don't count.
If the "Kindle Fire" sold so well, why not break out the sale numbers?
Simple. "Kindle Fire" sales number are underwhelming.
"Yeah, we, uh… we sold the most Kindles we've ever sold."
"… Okay, can you tell us how many you sold?"
"… No."
"...Well, okay: the ones that we no longer have in inventory...yeah, those are the ones we sold."
Of course, defenders of Amazon will try to point out that Apple hasn't been forthcoming on Apple TV numbers either, but the reality is that Steve wasn't in-the-media's-face tweeting "We sold more of dem!!!" every two months.
FWIW, based on some analysis I read the other day, it looks like a reasonable guess for the Kindle Fire is that it was roughly 40-50% of the Kindle sales...ie, roughly 400K-500K units. That doesn't really put it all that much higher than the first day's sales of the iPad-1.
-hh
Amazon once again on Thursday touted the success of its Kindle lineup, including the new Kindle Fire, but declined to get into specifics on sales figures.
Amazon announces sales figures using the Aborigine Numbering System: Few and Many
But, we should be able to reverse-engineer the actual numbers from the next AMZN financials...
Two Kindle purchases here. One standard and one Fire. So far kids are very happy. Probably $100 spent between them on content, books, movies ect..... My only complaint is that the Fire is associated to my account and credit card with no way of changing that. My Daughter could order without my permission. I know she wont but the threat is still there. I hope they fix that or there is going to be some very upset parents which may result in many returns of the Fire.
I bought two Kindle Fires for each of my kids too. No threat of running the card up though; the kids can't even find them half the time because they are always using mine and the wife's iPads and have dropped the kindles someplace.
I bought two Kindle Fires for each of my kids too. No threat of running the card up though; the kids can't even find them half the time because they are always using mine and the wife's iPads and have dropped the kindles someplace.
As Weekend Update on SNL so presciently reported, "This holiday season, the Kindle Fire is expected to be a very popular gift choice among 'parents who always buy the wrong thing.' "
As Weekend Update on SNL so presciently reported, "This holiday season, the Kindle Fire is expected to be a very popular gift choice among 'parents who always buy the wrong thing.' "
Then, there's this via Gruber:
People Who Didn't Get What They Wanted For Christmas
So does this mean one can never resell their Kindle Fire?
No. I can dis-associate the Fire. I could do that too my Daughter but we share an extensive Kindle library and that would cut her off. I do not see her selling it anytime soon though, she really likes it. The size is a big plus for her. She is 14 and likes the ability to slip it into her purse. Kids are simple sometimes.
I bought two Kindle Fires for each of my kids too. No threat of running the card up though; the kids can't even find them half the time because they are always using mine and the wife's iPads and have dropped the kindles someplace.
Sorry you did not know your kids well enough to know the things they want or like. Waste of $400.
Amazon announces sales figures using the Aborigine Numbering System: Few and Many
But, we should be able to reverse-engineer the actual numbers from the next AMZN financials...
Has any manufacture announced sale numbers? I see tons of third party speculation but no manufacture numbers.
Has any manufacture announced sale numbers? I see tons of third party speculation but no manufacture numbers.
Apple announces both sales numbers and channel inventory for most key products at every earnings call.
Sales == sales to end users and sales to resellers.
Channel Inventory == weeks of inventory at, or in transit to resellers.
For high-demand products (like the iPhone 4S with 1-2 week delivery) the Channel Inventory is essentially 0 -- it gets sold to end users as soon as it is received at the resellers.
So, iPhone 4S sales ~= sales to end users.
For other products, you can calculate the sales to end users ~= Beginning Channel Inventory - Ending Channel Inventory + Sales.