26 10 / 2011
Why wont Amazon say how many Kindles its sold?
Something about returning from the Christmas holidays makes people want to show off what they received a new sweater donned, a new gadget subtly pulled out at meetings, a few extra pounds padding the belly.
Jeff Bezos doesnât like this tradition. He will hint at the generous present that consumers gave to Amazon in the form of surprisingly strong sales, but he wonât offer details.
Bezos wants you to know that his Kindle  the e-book reader that has done a remarkably good job surviving in the age of the iPad  was Amazonâs Âbestselling product of all time. How many Kindles did Amazon sell? We donât know because Amazon isnât saying.
What Amazon does say is that the third generation of the Kindle surpassed even the number of Harry Potter 7 books it sold. Which is kind of disingenuous because Kindles are sold primarily through Amazon, while Harry Potter books are available in nearly every bookstore. But it does offer a hint: Some 5 million copies of Harry Potter have sold on Amazon since 2007, one analyst estimates.
Usually, analysts step in to offer sales figures that Amazon wonât. But in the case of the Kindle, they canât seem to agree. One reckons Amazon has sold 5.4 million Kindles in 2010, while another pegs that number at 8 million.
Either number is impressive, so why doesnât Amazon share it? Over on Quora, a former Amazon employee suggested itâs because the disclosure would help Amazonâs competitors. But nobody sells Kindleâs but Amazon, and few e-readers are even close to it in sales, unless you count the iPad.
But the iPad is a tablet, and the cheapest version of the iPad costs four times Kindleâs $139 price tag. Besides, Apple makes a point in bragging about how many iPads, iPod Touches and iPhones it sells each quarter, and it only seems to fuel sales.
Consumers like to buy hit products: It might even help Kindle sales if Amazon disclosed just how many itâs selling.
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15 10 / 2011
Man in wheelchair shot to death by Phoenix police
Martos said two veteran officers responded to a call of shots fired at the station at about 2:20 a.m. Witnesses said the man had assaulted his girlfriend and he may have shot a gun.The officers said they approached the man, who became belligerent and initially wheeled away from them, Martos said.The man then swung back and wheeled toward officers, pulling a gun out of his waistband, Martos said, and ignored commands to drop the weapon.”The suspect then raised and pointed his handgun at officers,” Martos said in a statement. “Fearing for their life, the officers shot the suspect.”Martos said the officers have been placed on administrative leave, which is standard department policy in officer-involved shootings.
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11 10 / 2011
RIM restores BlackBerry services day after outage
“We apologize to those customers who were impacted for any
inconvenience.”RIM is increasingly seen as a break-up or takeover target as
it has been losing its status as the corporate email service of
choice to other smartphones led by Apple’s iPhone, and
after a dismal set of quarterly results last month.
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