Quote:
Originally Posted by boswd
Popular does not mean best, just lazy researching and sheep mentality.
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No problem with the rest of the post but I think you're over-emphasizing the herd mentality.
What Amazon is doing is quietly highlighting the network effects of buying into the Kindle ecosystem. Historically, there is a *big* risk associated with buying into a new media distribution mechanism. (Think 8-track, Quadraphonic audio, Laserdisk, and everybody's favorite example Betamax).
Yes, there are a lot of people buying Kindle *just* because they see a lot of people buying Kindle.
But there is also *rational* reassurance in buying into a dominant ecosystem because the laws of economics favor the dominant platforms by drawing in content providers. No mass market publisher can afford to ignore Kindle and its market share, for starters. Finding accessories and cases will be easier and there will be more choice simply because the suppliers can make a living even if they only reach a tiny fraction of the market. And, as pointed out, Amazon's crowing is a subtle reminder that the Kindle is not going to be orphaned any time soon.
Finally, Amazon isn't alone in crowing about their product's success; everybody with a successful product---Apple, Microsoft, Kobo, etc---does it. The companies that don't are the ones that are either too clueless to understand *why* they should or the ones with nothing to crow about. Given that the reader business right now looks like a story of Amazon and the seven hundred dwarves, I suspect the quiet players are more likely in the latter category than the former.