Amazon Kindle Outselling Previous E-Reader Versions: Company
Amazon says its newest Kindle e-reader is outselling the older versions, as rumors circulate of an Android-powered, color Barnes & Noble Nook e-reader.
Amazon.com may be reluctant to share exactly how many Kindles the company’s sold since it debuted the e-reader, but that hasn’t stopped it from discussing—yet again—the device’s supposedly best-selling status.
“It’s still October and we’ve already sold more Kindle devices since launch than we did during the entire fourth quarter of last year—astonishing because the fourth quarter is the busiest time of year on Amazon,” Steve Kessel, senior vice president of Amazon Kindle, wrote in an Oct. 25 statement posted on the retailer’s Website. “For the top 10 bestselling books on Amazon.com, customers are choosing Kindle books over hardcover and paperback books combined at a rate of greater than 2 to 1.”
Amazon Kindle Features Hint at Future Direction
Amazon released its third-generation Kindle July 28, and the device’s “experimental features,” including a Web browser, hint at its possible future directions.
Even before Amazon.com announced its third-generation Kindle July 28, speculation abounded about what new features the online retailer would add to the device, in order to better compete against the likes of Barnes & Noble’s Nook and the Apple iPad.
On the furthest edge of that speculation, some suggested that Amazon would introduce multi-touch capabilities, or even a color screen. But the unveiled Kindle demonstrates Amazon’s continued focus on the basic e-reading experience: the screen has 50 percent better contrast, the body is smaller and lighter, the storage capacity has doubled—and new bells-and-whistles have been kept to a minimum.