Amazon Is Bright Spot In Otherwise Dark Consumer Holiday Landscape

January 29, 2009

Amazon capitalized on the shift to online shopping this holiday period to grow sales a startling 18 percent.

The company offered little insight into the market trends on a conference call with analysts. But market-monitor firms found that consumers both in the U.S. and abroad turned online this year for deals and convenience.

Amazons Kindle electronic reader saw strong demand

Amazon's Kindle electronic reader saw strong demand

Amazon was a big beneficiary. The online merchant said sales were $6.7 billion with slightly better growth in overseas markets than in North America.

Net income also was strong, up 9 percent, but the company’s gross margin suffered as it discounted products and offered free shipping to attract buyers.

The gross margin showed a greater than expected decline in the quarter and pricing was a factor, Amazon executives said on the conference call.

Surprisingly, the company said it anticipates its strong sales pace to continue. Amazon projected sales growth of as much as 19 percent in the first quarter – though a projection is offers ranges as low as 9 percent growth. Operating income could grow from 6 percent to 37 percent.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said sales of electronic book reader, Kindle, were stronger than expected in the period, but he didn’t offer details. Amazon now has 230,000 e-books for sale, up 45,000 in the quarter.

3 Comments | news, web 2.0 | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

New Monochrome Kindle On Feb 9th?

January 27, 2009
Amazon's newest ebook reader will be slimmer, brighter

Amazon's newest ebook reader will be slimmer, brighter

Kindle 2.0 is coming soon.

Amazon sent out invitations to the media today announcing a news conference on Feb 9th at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York, hosted by its founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos.

Speculations on the next generation’s Amazon’s e-book device abound. The new Kindle will be slimmer, lighter and brighter than the current out-of-stock $359 version. But no colour yet.

Leave a Comment » | hardware, news | Tagged: | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Amazon’s Kindle Grabs Another Top Publisher: USA Today

December 26, 2008

USA Today told its readers on Christmas that they would finally be able to get the newspaper daily on Amazon’s Kindle electronic reader.

Amazons Kindle gets USA Today

Amazon's Kindle gets USA Today

The paper, published by Gannet, had been a hold out. Starting today, subscribers will be able to download the paper, according to mocoNews.net, an online news site.

Kindle newspaper copies typically go for 75 cents, though monthly prices vary.

USA Today will be the 21st daily newspaper in the U.S. to publish on the device, which was launched in November 2007.

1 Comment | hardware, news, web 2.0 | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Vibrant E-Book Market Still Years Away, Says Samsumg, As Company Continues Work On Flexible Display

December 8, 2008

The market for electronic book readers is still a few years away as technology vendors explore ways to develop a clearer, flexible, more readable screen, a Samsung executive said Monday.

JunHyang Souk expects LCD oversupply to continue in first half of 2009

JunHyang Souk expects LCD oversupply to continue in first half of 2009

Products such as the Kindle from Amazon and the Reader from Sony have reached the market. But their image quality is worse than paper, giving Samsung extra time to produce an alternative, Executive Vice President JunHyung Souk said Monday.

Souk said Samsung is working on a technology it refers to as cholesteric phase, which is capable of producing a flexible, low-power, high-quality screen that could be made with plastic. It hopes to improve upon the technologies in the Kindle and Reader, which don’t do a good job displaying motion or colors.

“The market is not really growing, so we have a few more years to do R&D,” he said.

Besides, he said, the wireless connections and electronic content needed for e-books are evolving as well.

During a presentation at a company-sponsored technology forum in San Francisco, Souk added that the market for LCD displays should be difficult next year. Over supply persists and and should continue in the first half of next year,, and the growth in the television market will slow.

“It’s a headache,” he said. “Next year is a survival game.”

1 Comment | computers, hardware, news | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Walt Mossberg: Smartphones Are The True Mobile Internet Devices; Netbooks Are Good Too; Kindle Is A Home Run; Supports Net Neutrality

November 18, 2008
Wall Street Journal's personal technology columnist, Walt Mossbert thinks the iPhone, the Google G1 and the Blackberry Storm are the real MIDs

Wall Street Journal tech columnist, Walt Mossberg, believes that the iPhone, Google G1 and the Blackberry Storm are currently the only mobile Internet devices around.

In a question and answer session here at the Dow Jones Technology Showcase, Wall Street Journal gadget guru, Walt Mossberg, shared his thoughts on Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs), Netbooks, E-book readers/Amazon Kindle and Net neutrality.

Here are a summary of Mossberg comments on these various topics.

The iPhone, Google G1 and Blackberry Storms are the real Mobile Internet Device

Mobile Internet Device (MID) is a made up term that Intel made up to support the sale of some of its chipsets. The only one that matters are these things [Mossberg holds the iPhone and RIM's Blackberry Storm] which I just call handheld computers or super smartphones. These are mobile Internet devices. The people that are buying these devices are not spending most of their time making voice phone call. If they were they’ll buy something smaller and cheaper. They are mostly doing Internet things.

But if you’re referring to something with a different form factor than this, that’s a little bigger like the Nokia 810 kind of small tablet device, I don’t think they have emerged. I think they are a few of them that have shipped and that didn’t sold very well. And the one that I reviewed haven’t been very good.

Netbooks is a serious category

There are some netbooks which of course are clamshell devices. The original idea of a netbook was to connect to the Internet. It didn’t have very much performance or storage in it. And that’s been a better more serious category

The Ebook readers category is a home run since the Amazon Kindle

The perspective for the Ebook category is definitely brighter since the Kindle shipped. I don’t think the Kindle is yet a true mass market product… It’s my impression that they will not be like iPods, iPhones or RAZRs or some huge millions and millions. But compare to before the Kindle, one every single one of the Ebook readers have failed miserably and have lot of trouble allowing you to download books and the catalogs were tiny… It’s a home run compare to those.

 

Read the rest of this entry »

Leave a Comment » | news, startups, web 2.0, wireless | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by TechPulse 360

Jeff Bezos Says Electronic Books Could Expand The Market And Lower Prices

October 22, 2008
Kindle owners buy more books

Kindle owners buy more books

Amazon introduced its electronic book reader – the Kindle – in November 2007. Almost a year later, CEO Bezos says electronic readers could expand the market and lower the average price of books.

Kindle owners buy 1.6 times as many electronic books as they do printed books, he said on a Wednesday conference call. But it is not a substitution.

They continue to buy the same number of printed books they bought before buying a Kindle, he said.

They also pay less for their electronic books than they do printed ones – about $9 compared with $25. Electronic books may lower prices in the market, but Amazon hopes to sell many more units to make up the difference, Bezos said.

1 Comment | news, web 2.0 | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Mark Boslet

Next Entries »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 32 other followers