Amazon's Sold-Out Kindle Their Best-Selling Gadget On Cyber Monday (AMZN)

Dan Frommer | December 1, 2008 3:25 PM

Today is "Cyber Monday," the day that comScore says is supposed to be an "accurate bellwether" for holiday e-commerce shopping. So what does it say that Amazon's (AMZN) best-selling electronic gadget, according to Amazon, is its back-ordered Kindle e-book reader -- which won't ship for three months?

It's possible, of course, that Amazon's chart is broken. Or that third-party "used and new" Kindle transactions are occurring so rapidly that they're pushing it to the top. Some 34 used Kindles start at $450 and go up to $1,500. Maybe people are buying today to avoid paying twice as much in two weeks. (We're asking Amazon for clarification on how they calculate their lists. It's also listed as their "most wished for" and "most gifted" electronic gadget.)

But since you can't really reliably give a new Kindle as a gift this Christmas, we assume that sales are at least somewhat depressed. Which means it probably can't be great news for Amazon that its sold-out Kindle is leading gadget sales -- ahead of in-stock, discounted Garmin GPS devices, Apple (AAPL) iPods, a Sony (SNE) Blu-ray player, and Canon digital cameras.

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12 Comments

TM said:

Dec. 01, 3:38 PM

"So what does it say that Amazon's (AMZN) best-selling electronic gadget, according to Amazon, is its back-ordered Kindle e-book reader -- which won't ship for three months?"

This might also be a question that the SEC should ask...

Dan Frommer (URL) said:

Dec. 01, 3:46 PM

Why's that?

TM said:

Dec. 01, 4:13 PM

As you are aware, the Kindle's success (real or imagined) has greatly influenced the value Amazon's stock price.

If Amazon.com is intentionally distorting the relative success of its own product (and thus influence its own stock price), then it should come to the attention, and the interest, of the SEC.

rizchamp said:

Dec. 01, 4:37 PM

Ok, consider myself confused here. I went to the bestseller list where Kindle is the top hit and looked at the customer reviews on it.

Here are some quick stats

At this point, there are 6,700 total reviews, with 81% rate it 4 stars and above

I sorted all the reviews by dates, and compare the first 5 pages versus the last 5 pages (the newest 50 review and oldest 50 reviews), and compared the difference in rating etc

1. the oldest 50 reviews were half/half in rating, while the newest reviews are overwhelmingly positive

2. Among the oldest 50 reviewers, about 40% have 2+plus reviews (just place the cursor over the name of the reviewer) while the newest 50 reviewer, 90%+ has only one reviews. And I read through the few new reviewers who left comment other than Kindle - only one person reviewed another book, the other people provided reviews on electronic, CDs, and one guy, on turkey soup.

So how does this add up? Did Amazon provide incentive for people to provide review? Is Amazon capturing a new customer segment who, based on their review history, do not care to much for books (or leaving reviews on them)? If those people do not read books that much, why they bought a Kindle? Or the top of the list reflects the tradition of giving expensive but easy to forget gift? But we are in recession...

Confused.

rizchamp said:

Dec. 01, 4:56 PM

Top Five Electronic on Amazon / eBay listings

1. Kindle, 351
2. Nuvi 350, 1316
3. Nuvi 760, 1037
4. Touch 8GB, 5023
5. Powershot A590, 400

For what it worth, Wii, 6,328

Piaw (URL) said:

Dec. 01, 5:42 PM

I don't see what's so confusing. A lot of the oldest reviews were by people who didn't actually own the Kindle. My experience is that most Kindle owners actually love the product. As more Kindles got "out in the field", the number of people who actually own the product will increase.

Also, I remember a talk where an Amazon.com guy explained why most reviews of any given product on Amazon.com is positive. It boils down to the fact that you rarely post a negative review because the negative events cause you to want to even forget you bought the thing, and writing a review will just reinforce a bad memory.

rizchamp said:

Dec. 01, 6:41 PM

Piaw,

When you say "My experience is that most Kindle owners actually love the product. " is that an experience from your ownship of a Kindle or in other capacity?

I was confused as to why the Kindle owners/reviewers never reviewed any books - they are supposedly book readers more than average, any take on that?

KN said:

Dec. 01, 8:48 PM

Oprah had it on her show as her fave new gadget & offered $50 off. Never underestimate the power of Oprah to help sell. This was only a few weeks ago...not surprised it sold out.
BTW....I bought 2 & we love them.

Piaw Na (URL) said:

Dec. 01, 8:59 PM

My experience with Kindle owners is both my brothers and a friend, and myself. That's 4 of us.

Why do you say Kindle owners never review books? I review books --- they're on my blog. It just never occurs to me to mention whether or not they're on the Kindle. A book is a book is a book. Whether you read on the Kindle or on paper makes no difference.

TM said:

Dec. 02, 9:57 AM

Must be a coincidence, but since we started talking about it yesterday, the Kindle has slipped two positions. It is now the third best-selling electronic gadget.

I believe this is the first time since its introduction over a year ago, that Amazon.com has rated the Kindle anything less than as its first place, best-selling electronic gadget.

But it has dropped two places--just since we started talking about it yesterday.

Must be a coincidence...

Real Analyst from JT Marlin said:

Dec. 02, 10:26 AM

This is not news.

Kindle has been sold out for at least a week.

Dan Frommer (URL) said:

Dec. 02, 10:30 AM

Did you even read the post?