Amazon is sold out of Kindles and is saying that it will take “11 to 13 weeks” to ship new orders. A notice on the site says, “Due to heavy customer demand, Kindle is sold out.” As ever, theories abound, while facts are few. Did Oprah drive more sales than expected? Are they letting the current version of the Kindle sell out while they prepare to replace it with Kindle 2.0?Silicon Alley Insider In other e-news, the Christian Science Monitor blogs about Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s program of about 15 books formatted for the iPhone. They are working with ScrollMotion, a […]
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Nintendo's Game Boy eReader
Some of us have wondered for the better part of a decade when NIntendo would take its huge platform of game-devices and use them as electronic readers. After many rumors, the company now appears set with a December 26 release of their first title in the UK–a collection of 100 classic books, plus the ability to download ten more using the Nintendo DS’s wi-fi capabilities. The cartridge lists for 19.99 pounds. The promotional copy says, “Hold the DS like a book and use the touch screen to turn the pages.”Amazon UK offerUK game site
One Kindle Stat: 10k NYT Readers
The Nieman Foundation comments on an internal NYT memo that tells staffer at the newspaper “we now have more than 10,000 paid subscribers to The Times on Kindle as well as more than 2,000 subscribers to the various NYTimes blogs available via the device.” Those totals were apparently boosted by an election-time “promotion” that provided free access to Kindle owners for a few days, with 8,500 sample copies downloaded. They say they are considering a similar promotion around inauguration time.Nieman blog
Kindle Rumor: 2.0 in Q1
Amazon said enough times “no new Kindle in 2008” that TechCrunch is now convinced by its sources that the new version of their e-book reader is “tentatively scheduled to go on sale in ‘early next quarter.'” They confirm their belief that the prototype pictures circulated in October online “are real” and that a larger student-targeted Kindle reader is on track for the first half of 2009. (Would you release a product for students towards the end of the semester?) But they also “hear a bunch of new ebook products are about to hit the market, and some of them may […]
RH Announces More Digitization
Random House’s US division announced its “intention to make an additional 6,000-plus of its backlist titles available as e-books in the coming months,” adding to the current list of 8,200 electronic titles. They are also further embracing the epub standard, “for the first time…offering its entire current electronic catalogue, as well as future titles” in that format. CEO Markus Dohle says “more people everyday are enjoying reading in the electronic format and Random House wants to extend our reach to them with more of our books.” Random House tells the AP their tiny e-book sales have tripled this year.
European Library Site Closes as Quickly as It Opened
After a busier-than-expected first day, the EU’s Europeana web site closed back down for scaling. The home page says they will be return “in a more robust version as soon as possible. We will be back by mid-December.” Their development/preview site is still online at http://dev.europeana.eu/.