I read an article today on Yahoo saying Amazon has announced November 2009 had the highest sales ever for the Kindle – playing it close to the vest as always, they don’t differentiate it between the Kindle DX, Kindle 2-International, or Kindle 2-US only versions, nor do they tell you the number of units sold.
Still sitting on the fence on buying a Kindle? The eBook readers are hotter than ever, with the Barnes & Noble nook and Sony’s ereader sold out with no guarantees of pre-orders being delivered prior to Christmas or sometime in January 2010. I guess rampant consumer demand is a good thing – but there is also the future profit loss as those who wanted to buy, say a nook having to “settle” for a Kindle (I know, blasphemy for a Kindle-related blog mentioning something other than a Kindle but everyone doesn’t have your good taste now, do they?). The future profit loss is these new Kindle owners are going to continue to shop in the Amazon store vs. a Barnes & Noble store, and Barnes & Noble won’t have those future book sales – let alone the hardware eBook reader sale.
Why am I mentioning this when Amazon still has Kindles ready to sell? If you will recall about this time last year – Amazon ran out. No more for Christmas delivery. Of course, Amazon is not going to issue a press release or post to their website something like “Hurry up and buy a Kindle as we only have 1,322 Kindles in stock!” Bottom line here is if you’re thinking of buying a Kindle for Christmas, better act now!