Bloomberg has attracted attention for a story from Tuesday regarding Amazon Prime membership. Citing “three people familiar with the matter,” Bloomberg says that as of October 2011 Amazon had “3 million to 5 million people subscribed to Prime.” In contrast, analysts who follow Amazon have pegged prime membership at anywhere from 5 million to 13 million people or more. The enduring takeaway here is a reminder that no one knows anything useful about Amazon’s undisclosed numbers–particularly analysts. When they publish estimates about proprietary statistics–prime membership; ereader and Kindle Fires sold; sales of ebooks–they are guessing, often with wild inaccuracy. (As […]