Conspiracy Theory on Kindle being Sold Out

[dugbug]

Originally Posted by davec67

My bet is that amazon deliberately had little volume available precisely so that they could issue a press release saying that demand had sold them out in a few hours. This is a well known (and worn) marketing ploy where making something scarce makes more people want it.

You don't dedicate your storefront to something you can't sell in late November.

The real measure of how popular this is if in 6 months time it is still hard to get ( like the wii) or if it is easily available and at 1/2 the price which is my bet.

So no accounting for buying seasons, eh?

-d

[Roy White]

CCDMAN is on the right track here people.. Lets not get sidetracked from the conspiracy!!! Just the other day I saw two gerbils huddled in a highly secret conference discussing their nefarious plan to take over the world.

The aliens theory is silly though... Almost every alien ship has a tachyon beam that they use to create a wormhole, then use the matter transference atomizer to beam stuff halfway across the galaxy.

Doesn't ANYONE on this board watch Star Trek?

[CCDMan]

Maybe the Gerbils are in Cahoots with the Aliens?

[JSWolf]

Pinky: "Gee Brain, what do you want to do tonight?"
The Brain: "The same thing we do every night, Pinky—Try to take over the world.

[NatCh]

Originally Posted by CCDMan

Maybe the Gerbils are in Cahoots with the Aliens?

Pshaw -- ignoramuses -- the gerbils are aliens. Everyone knows that -- they had to switch from being white mice after they were exposed by Douglas Adams, the Pinky/Brain exposé was waaaaay behind the times.

Now they'll have to switch to hamsters or something ....

[markbot]

Now that the Kindle is on back order until Dec 17th, I think we can safely say there is no conspiracy surrounding the free 2 day shipping

But now I'm actually worried that they don't have enough production capacity on tap. This is a very serious bottleneck. But on the other hand, scarcity can build buzz. so, perhaps the conspiracy is still on!

[Alisa]

I doubt this level of demand will be sustained, though. I think a good portion of their market jumped on this right away. Plus it's the Christmas shopping season. This level of production may be fine for meeting the demand over time.

[brecklundin]

dunno if it fits here bit perhaps the price of the Kindle is so high to keep the number of buyers lower. Afterall Amazon likely has oodles of existing inventory they must dispose of as well as existing agreements with printers & publishers that must be satisfied before the Kindle can be a true success...?

Seems like a good conspiracy to me...

[azog]

I doubt they have "oodles of inventory". I suspect that they had massive buying. As someone pointed out, this thing was pretty well hyped with highly visible coverage. People who buy these things are not necessarily the same people who post in forums or post reviews. Average human behavior tends to keep us quiet unless there is a problem which we can be vocal about.

[brecklundin]

azog:

I was referring to existing hc/pb books not Kindle device inventory...think it through and it seems reasonable they would/will begin shifting inventory stores based on Kindle popularity. A more popular selling Kindle means a more remainered books to dispose of & lose money on...Amazon is a smart company and has to have considered these things...

I am sure they can also make decisions on inventory based on the buying habits of the Kindle buyers themselves...this all would seem to be true no matter if the Kindle existed or not. Eventually some form of reader would begin to dominate and influence the numbers of printed books sold. So in a way Amazon has been pretty proactive...now they can control (to a degree) the market much more so and reduce their liability in terms of printed books they warehouse.

For example I imagine they will reduce their inventory of Best Sellers significantly over the coming year. But until they know the effects of the Kindle on sales of printed books supply of the Kindle will be controlled via a higher price for the device itself. I can imagine given the DRM Amazon could almost give the devices free to folks and make a profit...from the Kindle side...from the printed books side they would lose money if the printed inventory went unsold as a result.

[markbot]

I've reading on the amazon forums that people are getting their Kindles several days before me...even though I ordered mine first!!! no fair.

I actually do think my "conspiracy" is legit now.

[NatCh]

Obviously, they monitor MobileRead and have targeted you for reprisals for your rumor-mongering here, markbot.

[Alisa]

Originally Posted by markbot

I've reading on the amazon forums that people are getting their Kindles several days before me...even though I ordered mine first!!! no fair.

I actually do think my "conspiracy" is legit now.

I ordered on the 20th and was originally supposed to get mine on 12/4. I upgraded to overnight shipping (I'm a Prime member so it's cheap) and the date got bumped up to 11/29. I don't know if I'd do that again, though. At first they weren't giving me a ship date and when I called them they said sometimes changing ship options bumps you to the back of the queue. Glad it didn't happen with this or I would have been sorely peeved.

[TadW]

Here is another theory:

Amazon throttled the Kindle supply to ensure that Whisphernet will not crash due to the high volume. Would that be theoratically possible?

[RWood]

Originally Posted by TadW

Here is another theory:

Amazon throttled the Kindle supply to ensure that Whisphernet will not crash due to the high volume. Would that be theoratically possible?

Yes. Sprint is still rolling it out and testing the network. While it worked fine in the lab environment, many fear that it will have problems in a large scale implementation. The Amazon book delivery system will be (from what I have read) the first large scale national test of the system.