14 DAY TRIAL // Amazon wastes no occasion to tout its Kindle device and store. A lot of its quarterly financial report was dedicated to the Kindle and now Amazon is issuing a press release just to let the world know that the Kindle is the preferred device for bestsellers.
Amazon is also bragging about record sales numbers of its third generation device. Incidentally, Amazon will also be introducing a rather pared down book rental program.
"It's still October and we've already sold more Kindle devices since launch than we did during the entire fourth quarter of last year--astonishing because the fourth quarter is the busiest time of year on Amazon," said Steve Kessel, Senior Vice President, Amazon Kindle.
Amazon regularly says that the Kindle is selling better than ever yet it hasn't released any actual numbers to date. The company says that the Kindle is the best selling product on either Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, yet it won't say how many it sold.
And that's not all, last summer Amazon said that for the first time, sales of Kindle e-books were bigger than hardcover sales. That was an impressive feat but it wasn't really a fair comparison.
Now though it's saying that Kindle book sales outstrip hardcovers and paperbacks combined, although only for bestsellers.
"For the top 10 bestselling books on Amazon.com, customers are choosing Kindle books over hardcover and paperback books combined at a rate of greater than 2 to 1. Kindle books are also outselling print books for the top 25, 100, and 1,000 bestsellers--it's across the board," said Kessel.
Finally, Amazon has said that it plans to introduce a "lending" feature. This will enable users to lend e-books they purchased to their friends, who are also Kindle users, "just like with real books."
While lent, the book won't be available for reading to the owner. But that's where the comparison ends. You'll only be able to lend the book for 14 days and only once to the same friend.