Analyst: Amazon Downplays Rumored Kindle Sales

Mac Slocum
August 25, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1) | Listen

Recently reported Kindle sales estimates are off the mark, according to McAdams Wright Ragen analyst Tim Bueneman. From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Amazon officials gave McAdams Wright Ragen analysts the impression that high-end estimates on Kindle sales reported by TechCrunch and a Citigroup analyst are not reasonable.

Amazon managers "told us that the Kindle is definitely selling very well, but they also said the analysts and reporters giving out these extremely high estimates 'did not run them by company,'" Bueneman wrote. [Links added]

TechCrunch is standing by the shipping estimates in its original story:

We're sticking by our sources on the estimates of units shipped from the factories in China. Amazon is correct that we didn't "run them by company" prior to publishing, but since they don't comment on non-public sales figures, it wouldn't have been a useful exercise anyway.

Harping on an old point -- if Amazon and Sony refuse to share e-reader sales, publishers are best served developing an overall digital gameplan rather than hedging bets on a particular device.

Also from the Seattle P-I: Bueneman says new Kindles are in development (release dates not revealed) and, as anticipated, Amazon sees opportunity for Kindle adoption among college students.

(Thanks to Tom Marhoefer for links.)

Related Stories:

• TechCrunch: "We Know How Many Kindles Amazon Has Sold: 240,000"
• MarketWatch: "Amazon's Kindle could be next iPod, analyst says"
• The Pitfalls of Publishing's E-Reader Guessing Game
• Open Question: Have You Seen a Kindle in Public?
• Which Game is the Kindle Changing?
• Publishers Beware: Amazon has you in their sights
• Amazon Ups the Ante on Platform Lock-In