Amazon Says Kindle and E-Book Sales Set Records
Amazon.com said Monday that its Kindle e-reader has become the most gifted item in the company’s history, but didn’t provide specific sales numbers.
Boldfaced emphasis added by me.
This is the game Amazon has been playing since the introduction of the Kindle. A “Look over there!” game of misdirection that smells of outright fraud.
It’s well past time for Amazon to put up or shut up.
Honest companies don’t continue to hide something like this.
Honest companies show transparency.
Honest companies understand that real numbers are related to real shareholder value.
What is Amazon’s game here?
Is it the standard Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt ploy? Put fear in the minds of your competitors, put uncertainty in the minds of book publishers, put doubt in the minds of eBook device buyers?
Listen, it’s been claimed that Dan Brown’s blockbuster The Lost Symbol sold 200,000 eBook editions. But that was available in multiple formats. Plus we’re not even certain that number is either truthful or accurate.
Doesn’t anyone realize what an absolutely crappy sales figure that is given the hype the Kindle has gotten since its introduction?
Sony slogged for years and years and years, plastering ads all over the place — and managed to sell “only” 300,000 Readers.
I put “only” in quotes there because compared to the non-existent number of Kindles out there, that’s the impression left in comparison.
FUD.
We have been through a decade of outright fraud as noted in this New York Times column by Frank Rich. The fraudulent invasion of Iraq, the fraudulent hype of Enron, the fraudulent low-interest mortgages.
I’m saying until Amazon releases a true number, it smells as fraudulent as the rest of those, period.
And all of you publishers in New York City? It’s time for you to grow some balls.
I’m giving you a task: The first week in January, all of you issue a joint press release stating what your largest eBook sellers have been on the Kindle.
I have a feeling all of you are going to be shocked at the low cards you’ve been holding, while thinking your “competitor” has been holding a high card, making money hand over fist via Amazon Kindle Store downloads.
Do it!
Let’s end this stench one way or another.
Posted by mikecane 
The eBook Test 