When asked directly by Steven Levy in Wired magazine “How many Kindles have you sold?”, Jeff Bezos gave a "long, loud example of his famous laugh" before replying “I know you don't expect me to [give an answer]".
I do expect an answer. There are too many of us dependent on those numbers. Piqued, I went through Amazon's press releases for the past few years, and gathered up these tidbits of information. I'm not sure they reveal much, except facetiousness and a love of algebra. Why don't they tell us more? You'd think they have something to hide!
iOS = 316 million
For the record, Asymco recently reported that Apple said it had sold 55 million iPads to date, along with 261 million iPhones and iPod touches (all of which can run iBooks).Note that S generally refers to sales of Kindle devices, B is number of Kindle books available. I've added subscripts when referring to smaller subsets of these groupings. O generally refers to other. Hover above any symbols you don't understand and tooltips with explanations should appear. Links go to original press release on Amazon with cited "data".
Can you discern anything useful in this data?
Sk > So
12/29/11: Holiday Bestsellers, Amazon.com only Electronics: Kindle Fire; Kindle Touch; and KindleS > 1,000,000 * 4
12/29/2011: Throughout December, customers purchased well over 1 million Kindle devices per weekS > 2,000,000 + 2,000,000
12/29/2011: customers purchased millions of Kindle Fires and millions of Kindle e-readersSkf > So
11/28/2011: the popular Kindle Fire remained the bestselling product across all of Amazon since its introduction 8 weeks ago...S2011 = 4 * S2010
11/28/2011: customers purchased 4X as many Kindle devices as they did last Black FridaySke = 2*Spl
10/25/2011: In the three weeks since launch, orders for electronic ink Kindles are double the previous launch. And based on what we're seeing with Kindle Fire pre-orders, we're increasing capacity and building millions more than we'd already planned.SK3g > SOK
P3g = $139
7/26/2011: Kindle 3G with Special Offers has quickly become our bestselling Kindle at only $139...Sgk2q > Sg1q
7/26/2011: Sales growth of Kindle devices accelerated in second quarter 2011 compared to first quarter 2011B > 950,000
The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 950,000 booksB > 900,000
4/26/2011: The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 900,000 booksS > 2,000,000
1/27/2011:after selling millions of third-generation Kindles with the new Pearl e-ink display during the quarter, Kindle books have now overtaken paperback books as the most popular format on Amazon.com...Sb = 1.15*Spb
1/27/2011:Since the beginning of the year, for every 100 paperback books Amazon has sold, the Company has sold 115 Kindle booksSb = 3*Sph
1/27/2011: Additionally, during this same time period the Company has sold three times as many Kindle books as hardcover booksSk3 > SHP
1/27/2011: the third-generation Kindle eclipsed "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" as the bestselling product in Amazon's history.B > 810,000
1/27/2011: The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 810,000 booksS12 > Sol
10/21/2010: More new generation Kindle devices were ordered in the first twelve weeks of availability than in the same time frame following any other Kindle launch.S > So
10/21/2010: In addition, in the twelve weeks following the introduction of the new generation of Kindles, customers ordered more Kindle devices on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk than any other product.Sk4 > Spl
8/25/2010: more new generation Kindles were ordered in the first four weeks of availability than in the same timeframe following any other Kindle launchSb = 1.43*Sh
7/22/2010: Over the past three months, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, the Company has sold 143 Kindle booksSb = 1.8*Sh
7/22/2010: Over the past month, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, the Company has sold 180 Kindle books.Sb2010/2 = 3*Sb2009/2
7/22/2010: Amazon sold more than 3x as many Kindle books in the first half of 2010 as in the first half of 2009.GSb > 207%
7/22/2010: The Association of American Publishers' latest data reports that e-book sales grew 163 percent in the month of May and 207 percent year-to-date through May. Kindle book sales in May and year-to-date through May exceeded those growth rates.Sjp = 1,140,000
Sjpk = 867,881
7/22/2010: On July 6, Hachette announced that James Patterson had sold 1.14 million e-books to date. Of those, 867,881 were Kindle books.Sb > 2,500,000
7/22/2010: Five authors--Charlaine Harris, Stieg Larsson, Stephenie Meyer, James Patterson, and Nora Roberts--have each sold more than 500,000 Kindle books.B > 500,000
4/22/2010: The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 500,000 booksS > 2,000,000
1/28/2010: Millions of people now own KindlesSb =0.6 * Sp
1/28/2010: When we have both editions, we sell 6 Kindle books for every 10 physical books.B > 410,000
1/28/2010: The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 410,000 booksSn > So
10/30/2009: November is already the best sales month ever for Kindle, even before Cyber MondayS > So
U > Uo
10/22/2009: Kindle has become the #1 bestselling item by both unit sales and dollarsB > 360,000
10/22/2009: The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 360,000 booksP = $299
7/23/2009: Amazon.com reduced the price of Kindle, the #1 bestseller in its consumer electronics store, to $299B > 320,000
7/23/2009: The Kindle Store offers more than 320,000 booksB > 280,000
5/11/2009: the Kindle Store’s 280,000 booksB > 270,000
4/23/2009: The Kindle Store offers more than 270,000 booksB > 230,000
2/9/2009: More than 230,000 books are now available in the Kindle StoreP = $359
2/9/2009: Introducing Amazon Kindle 2: $359D > 0
12/31/2008: We’re particularly grateful for the unusually strong demand for Kindle in the fourth quarter.”S < So
12/26/2008: Top sellers in consumer electronics included Samsung's 52-inch 1080p 120Hz LCD HDTV with RED Touch of Color, the Apple iPod touch 8 GB (2nd Generation) and the Acer Aspire One 8.9-inch netbook (1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 processor, 1 GB RAM, 160 GB hard drive, XP Home, 6 cell battery), sapphire blue.
I guess I take a different view. I don't really care whether Amazon releases sales numbers for Kindle devices. Since so many Kindle books are read on other platform, it is not all that meaningful. Besides, I care most about book sales; how people are reading them and on what devices is of little real concern. The vast majority (65% or so) of our eBook sales are Kindle books, wherever they might be read.
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