Amazon Says Kindle 3 Is Its Best Selling Product "Of All Time...."

[jasonkchapman]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

It has nothing to do with being a sheep. Amazon succeeds the same way Bose succeeds. People want quick, easy to operate, understand gizmo's that do what they say they can do. Both of these companies succeed by giving people exactly what they want.

Not everyone is interested in all the geeky details that some of you thrive on.

Considering that the release regarded sales, not ease-of-use, I hardly consider actual sales figures to be "geeky details." If Ford announced that the new Ford Whateveritscalled is the fastest production vehicle in their line, I'd expect some zero-to-sixty numbers to go with it.

The purpose of the release is obvious: "You should buy one because everyone else already has one. Honest."

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by jasonkchapman

The purpose of the release is obvious: "You should buy one because everyone else already has one. Honest."

Perhaps, although I think it's a bit more of claiming that the iPad has not killed off the Kindle, as so many pundits (and others) insisted would be the case.

[jasonkchapman]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Perhaps, although I think it's a bit more of claiming that the iPad has not killed off the Kindle, as so many pundits (and others) insisted would be the case.

You're probably right, with a little "you may resume buying our stock, now" thrown in.

[Sydney's Mom]

158 items per second. I feel sorry for the poor people in the shipping department!

Last book read: The Slap, by Christos Tsiolkas. Currently reading Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by jasonkchapman

The purpose of the release is obvious: "You should buy one because everyone else already has one. Honest."

Or:
"We are selling lots, the brand is strong, we are doing well in this market, we are doing much better than any other brand you might have heard of, we are going to keep selling eBooks for a long time, you don't need to worry that if you buy one it will be abandoned."

When there are competing mutually exclusive formats, buying the most popular can be a rational choice, not just being a sheep.

[boswd]

Originally Posted by jasonkchapman

Considering that the release regarded sales, not ease-of-use, I hardly consider actual sales figures to be "geeky details." If Ford announced that the new Ford Whateveritscalled is the fastest production vehicle in their line, I'd expect some zero-to-sixty numbers to go with it.

The purpose of the release is obvious: "You should buy one because everyone else already has one. Honest."

exactly, it's feeding the sheep. This is what we referred to it in Markeing Class back in college.

The Kindle is no more easier to use than the Sony, Kobo, Nook etc. But what they have done and what others have done very little of is adverstise and market their product. I'm not holding that agains Amazon, there are doing exactly what they should do and BN and Sony should take note.

But let's get a healthy dose of reality here, I'm willing to wager that 80% of the people who bought the Kindle, (that does not mean this counts the people who are daily users of this site) bought the Kindle because they feel it's the only out there and have heard of it. And then comes along press releases like the ones stated above that only feeds this mentality.

Kudos to Amazon's marketing and advertising department. But iPods sell like candy but audio quality? they don't match up with the Sansa's, the Sony's and the Zunes, they just don't.

Popular does not mean best, just lazy researching and sheep mentality.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by boswd

exactly, it's feeding the sheep. This is what we referred to it in Markeing Class back in college.

Feeling defensive?

The Kindle is no more easier to use than the Sony, Kobo, Nook etc. But what they have done and what others have done very little of is adverstise and market their product. I'm not holding that agains Amazon, there are doing exactly what they should do and BN and Sony should take note

But let's get a healthy dose of reality here, I'm willing to wager that 80% of the people who bought the Kindle, (that does not mean this counts the people who are daily users of this site) bought the Kindle because they feel it's the only out there and have heard of it. And then comes along press releases like the ones stated above that only feeds this mentality.

I know it makes you feel "special" that you don't own a Kindle, but pretending that the Kindle doesn't offer very real advantages for many users just shows how defensive *you* are about your own e-reader purchase. If you were really confident that your nook was all that, you wouldn't be *constantly* attacking Kindle users for being "sheep" or "kindlebots." You would be talking about whatever advantages you thought your Nook might have.

You are not better, or smarter, or 3l337 because you own a "Nook."

Kudos to Amazon's marketing and advertising department. But iPods sell like candy but audio quality? they don't match up with the Sansa's, the Sony's and the Zunes, they just don't.

Popular does not mean best, just lazy researching and sheep mentality.

No, popular *doesn't* mean bad. It simply means popular. And for many people, the Kindle does offer very real advantages over other readers. Advantages that may not be important to you, but are important to other people.

Such as the fact that you don't need a computer to buy a book, that you can buy from Amazon, and that you don't need to sideload (but you can).

Nook and Kobo don't have Pearl; Sony doesn't have wireless unless you pay $300 (and even then the buying experience isn't as good as the Kindle's); NookColor is LCD.

Of course you may not care about buying from Amazon, you might not care about paying $300 (especially for a touchscreen), you might like having a tablet, or library books may be more important to you than Pearl. That's perfectly reasonable, and I don't object to anyone who has those priorities.

But many people prefer the priorities offered by the Kindle, and they are not "wrong" to do so, even if a lot of people seem to like those priorities.

And the thing is, you are *not* just buying an e-reader. You are buying an e-reader *and* an e-reader infrastructure. And many people prefer the Kindle+Amazon infrastructure because the integration is tight, there plenty of books...and, yeah, Amazon is looking more and more like VHS to other reader's Beta.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by boswd

Popular does not mean best, just lazy researching and sheep mentality.

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.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

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.

Entirely agree with this. All my computers run on Linux, so I know it can be irritating when content providers etc don't support your platform of choice.

Not needing to run Adobe Digital Editions was also a plus for me, since I only have one install of Windows, and prefer not to use it. Having to reboot in order to authorise a new e-book and load it onto my reader would have been a real pain for me.

The fact that it's available in the UK was also a big plus over the Nook

[elcreative]

Trouble is that good advertising, herd mentality and its rationalisation often mitigate against a superior product as you say with VHS vs Betamax as a prime example and Amazon are doing exactly what VHS manufacturers did... making sure content to use is readily available and tied into their hardware...

At the moment there is no really dominant eReader technology in terms of technical merit but Amazon are doing a good job of trying to become the dominant tech in this area aided by lazy media commentators...

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by elcreative

Not necessarily, remember VHS vs Betamax vs Philips (and Philips 2000) when the worst system won the mass market through clever advertising tied to content domination...

The "worst" *system*? By whose standards?
VHS was multi-vendor from the beginning, Beta was Sony proprietary until it was too late. VHS's recording length was better suited to the way people used the product. VHS Players were cheaper. It had more movies available for purchase and rental.
The Myth of Beta superiority has been debunked repeatedly but like the villain in bad slasher flicks, it keeps coming back...

Satisfying customers instead of pundits is no crime.

[elcreative]

fjtorres, I was going to go into detail on your last comment but decided I couldn't be bothered as you are all knowing... I was actually agreeing overall with your comments but if you want to attack them... go ahead...

[Fbone]

Amazon is selling all these Kindles and yet no one I know owns one.

[K-Thom]

They do, believe me. They just won't tell you.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by K-Thom

They do, believe me. They just won't tell you.

Aww, why not? I'm a nice person