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Although sales figures are hard to hammer down, its seems like e-book readers were a smash hit this year. Amazon alone is claiming that the Kindle was the most gifted item in its history. No numbers were mentioned, but when you consider that it is up against everything from game consoles to GPS’s this is no small milestone. Another interesting stat is that on Christmas day, e-books outsold their paper brethren by a pretty healthy margin. No doubt this was all the new Kindle owners firing up their devices in search of content, but it only further fuels speculation that all reading will eventually shift to digital distribution in the future.
The Kindle seems to have been a raging success, but the Barnes and Noble Nook appears to be suffering a bit with early reports showing that its content servers became overloaded preventing users from downloading purchased e-books. This might end up being but a small blip of bad press in the products long life cycle, but its definitely not the kind attention Barnes and Noble was hoping for over the holiday. In this case the success of the Nook can be attributed to its failings, but that’s small consolation for its owners.
Did you get an e-book reader over the holidays? What do you think of it?
Comments are closed on this article
kw13tl33tg33k
December 28, 2009 at 7:09am
I like cool tech as much as the next guy. I just dont like the idea of someone corporate entity telling me what i can or cannot do with content i purchase. With products like the Kindle , Nook or PSP GO, they are encouraging the idea of for all intents and purposes "leasing content with the right to view on the appropriate device" What happens if tomorrow Amazon gets bought out by say Walmart and Walmart decides that Kindle is not in their long range plans for continued world domination? What happens to your content? Wouldnt you like to loan or give away that new fantastic novel or biography you just finished reading or give your buddy a PSP UMD of a game you already beat? You cant do any of that unless you are going to part with your uber device whose "perceived" value goes up exponentially with the more content that is tied to it. Thing is Companies dont really want you doing any of those things they would prefer if your buddy went and bought his OWN book or own UMD. That of course is the problem with this warped variation of capitalism that we practice. Our enterprises in our "free enterprise" doesnt really want to be "free".
/end rant
nekollx
December 29, 2009 at 10:18am
I agree, when I buy a book or game i buy to OWN, the idea that The Man decides the definition of OWN irks me terribly, and while i love the idea of never loosing or messing up a CD thanks to STEAM i'd like the ability to "pass it on" or do anything else i might do with a phsycial copy.
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Five teenagers, one alien ghost, a robot, and the fate of the world.
Toady00
December 27, 2009 at 10:59pm
I bought my wife a nook for Christmas, and overall I am impressed. It does have some issues, but overall for B&N's first attempt, I think it is great. I'm hoping that it wont take long for some updates to the firmware that will really help this device shine. I did experience a problem trying to download purchased books on Christmas day but that problem has been completely eliminated. What else do you expect when you live on the bleeding edge of technology?
blobro
December 27, 2009 at 6:25pm
I am the proud owner of a kindle, and when i went into barnes and noble to try out a nook, it looked and felt great and the cool factor was higher than the kindle but it was really just a pain to navigate.
It depends on what your definition of is "is"
Vegan
December 27, 2009 at 2:08pm
Where can I get me some rich friends like that? I've been spending the holidays laughing at all the "give the gift of a Lexus" etc. commercials. Who are these people??
