Jeff Bezos: "Millions of People Now Own Kindles"

Amazon has been notoriously tight-lipped (so far) as to how many of their popular Kindle devices have been sold, but this information has now started to leak out.

It started in the company's Q4 earnings conference call earlier today, when CEO Jeff Bezos revealed that "millions of people now own Kindles".

According to Techcrunch.com, "the total number of all types of Kindles out there in user's hands hit 3 million sometime in December." This information apparently came from a "source close to Amazon". Source: Techcrunch.com

Forrester Research recently put out a report in which they estimated that a total of 2.5 million Kindles had been sold.

These numbers, if true, would mean that many analysts and market observers have been significantly underestimating the rate at which Amazon would move their Kindle devices. According to Techcrunch, many analysts believed that Amazon would have sold a total of 2.5 million Kindles by the end of 2010, and not the end of 2009.

Another eye-opening piece of information that was revealed on the Amazon.com conference call - the company is currently selling 6 Kindle books for every 10 physical books.

Why is this information notable? Well, for a few reasons, including:

1. The market for Ebook readers is obviously very large

2. Apple, which introduced their iPad device earlier this week, may have a harder time penetrating the Kindle-dominated Ebook reader market than first anticipated, especially given that the initial reviews for the iPad weren't all that positive

3. Amazon has sold all of these devices through their online store, which is quite a remarkable feat by itself

Anybody doubting the viability of Ebook readers over the long term needs to take a close look at these numbers. There is a reason why many companies are currently tripping over themselves in an attempt to get into this market.

Link: Amazon.com Quote

Filed under: General Market News