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from MediaFile:

Why won’t Amazon say how many Kindles it’s 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 doesn't like this tradition. He will hint at the generous present that consumers gave to Amazon in the form of surprisingly strong sales, but he won't 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 Amazon's “bestselling product of all time.” How many Kindles did Amazon sell? We don't know because Amazon isn't 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 won't. But in the case of the Kindle, they can't 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 doesn't Amazon share it? Over on Quora, a former Amazon employee suggested it's because the disclosure would help Amazon's competitors. But nobody sells Kindle's 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 Kindle's $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.

Check Out Line: New chapters in book battle

Check out the battles emerging over books.

Google on Thursday announced plans to offer its own online electronic bookstore, joining a battlefield currently dominated by Amazon.com.

The company plans to sell ebooks for any device with a web browser and its library is expected to start at about half a million books when it is launched in 2010.

The library would compete with the likes of Amazon.com’s Kindle offerings, but the books an be bought from Amazon and Barnesandnoble.com, as well as from Google directly.

Separately, Barnes & Noble is expected to launch its own electronic reader next week. Pictures of that reader on Gizmodo look kind of cool.

The New York Times also says that even public libraries are getting more into ebooks, though the business model is dicey for publishers.

In paper and ink book news, Walmart.com said it will offer the top 10 preselling U.S. books for $10 each, including free shipping.

from MediaFile:

Barnes & Noble plans big (e-reader?) event

Brace yourself for the next salvo in the battle of the ebook readers (or electronic reading devices, or e-reader, or whatever you want to call them).

Barnes & Noble is planning a "major event" next Tuesday in New York to announce a mystery... something.

The bookseller won't say exactly what it will announce, but we'd be surprised if its NOT a digital book reader, to compete with Amazon's Kindle and Sony's Reader series.

In fact, Gizmodo says it has the goods on the device -- which it says has "a multi-touch display like an iPhone" -- and picture of the device. Click the link and take a look.

What do you think of this device (which may or may not be the actual product)? For that matter, what do you think about e-readers? Are you ready to buy one?

Let us know in the comment area.

Check Out Line: Target takes control of Target.com

Check out Target already looking forward to the 2011 holiday season.The discount retailer said it is taking control of Target.com and aiming to launch its new website by the 2011 holiday season.The announcement signals the end of a relationship with online retailer Amazon.com that began in 2001.”We believe it is in Target’s best interest going forward to assume full control over the design and management of Target’s e-commerce technology platform, fulfillment and guest services operations,” Target.com President Steve Eastman said in a statement.Target had previously extended its contract with Amazon to 2011, but the companies will continue to work together during the next two years.Also in the basket:Crocs Q2 beats, sees return to profit in 2010 Blue Nile profit in-line; full-yr view tops, shrs upHhgregg Q1 profit beats Street, reaffirms outlookForget the shuttle, take a Hermes chopper to the airportSupreme Court Justice Thomas and Wife Camp Out at Wal-Mart (Foxnews.com)(Photo: Reuters)

Check Out Line: Can a $298 laptop jump-start back-to-school?

Check out efforts to get serious back-to-school shopping underway.

Wal-Mart announced plans to start selling on Sunday a Compaq Presario laptop for $298.

Gary Severson, Wal-Mart U.S.’s senior vice president of home entertainment, told Reuters he thought the deal represented a “screaming value.”

The retailer also plans to cut the price of an Acer laptop with an 8-hour battery by $50 to $548. The computer has 3 gigabytes of memory, a 320 gigabyte hard drive and qualifies for a free upgrade to the Windows 7 operating system when it is released.

Retailers ranging from Wal-Mart, to Target, to J.C. Penney have outlined their plans to lure back-to-school shoppers. Penney is using a special website, jcp.com/teen, to reach web-savvy teenagers who shop for themselves in the back-to-school period but may have less money to do so this year.

But retailers are confronting cash strapped shoppers, who are watching their pennies as the unemployment rate rises and the housing market remains depressed.

Asked for his view of the back-to-school season, the Chief Executive of UPS, Scott Davis, said on a conference call it was too early to tell.

Netflix tops customer satisfaction survey

Online retail may be outperforming brick-and-mortar rivals amid the U.S. recession, but that’s no reason to get complacent.

In a wake-up call to the industry, a new survey shows that customer satisfaction with online retailers declined 3 percent from last year.

The slipping satisfaction level uncovered in ForeSee Results’ Top 100 Online Retail Satisfaction Index is a “remarkable trend,” according to its author.

The report — which surveyed 22,000 respondents to measure customer satisfaction at the top 100 online retailers by sales volume — found that the top performers were outweighed by more bottom performers, with 55 online retailers seeing their scores drop from last year.   “Customer satisfaction, when measured scientifically, is not just a number or a beauty contest. It is a direct precursor of customer behaviors that have a measurable and quantifiable ability to impact sales and profitability,” warned author Larry Freed.      A 1 point increase in customer satisfaction is equivalent to nearly 9 percent growth in online sales, the report found, while a satisfied shopper is 71 percent more likely to buy than a dissatisfied one.       First, the good news: Netflix.com is still No 1, followed by Amazon.com, with the top two companies maintaining their spots for five years in a row.  Avon.com came in third.

While a score of 80 or above represents a superior job, those logging lower than a 70 need some help.

That group includes 1800Flowers.com, BlueNile.com, JCrew.com, UrbanOutfitters.com and RestorationHardware.com.

The biggest year-over-year declines in customer satisfaction came from discounter Etronics.com and book retailer efollett.com, both also among the worst performers.      “It is surprising that any of the top 100 retailers could get away with scores in the 60s and maintain any kind of market dominance for very long,” wrote Freed.      While not in the bottom group, sites including CVS.com, NeimanMarcus.com, Apple.com and Blockbuster.com all saw their ratings fall over 6 percent from the prior year.

Is Amazon’s Kindle DX e-reader hype?

“The new Kindle DX is bigger, but is it better?” asked one headline as gadget reviewers examined the latest electronic reader from Amazon.com.

The verdict: “It isn’t as revolutionary as its promoters might like us to think.”

Amazon’s brand of Kindle e-readers now has a new addition, the Kindle DX, and despite the company’s hype, the $489 device may remain a niche product that appeals to a limited few.

The Seattle-based online retailer says the Kindle DX is optimized for newspapers and textbooks, and touts its large memory — 3,500 books — and auto-rotating screen.

But Amazon is not alone in the e-reader space — remember Sony? — and its new version will face increased competition from a host of rival products due on the market in the near future.

A smattering of reviews online spoke favorably about the DX’s larger display that makes viewing documents easier, but some cited an awkward browser — still labeled experimental by the company — lack of color and large size that makes it inconvenient for commuters.

As for price? The new version is $130 more than a Kindle 2 — the updated version that came out earlier this year — a fact that has caused many raised eyebrows.

Check Out Line: Recession? Not at Amazon.com

Check out the sales surge at Amazon.

The online retailer beat Wall Street expectations for quarterly earnings and revenue as lowered prices lured more shoppers online. It also benefited as sales of its Kindle electronic reader gained momentum.

The company increased revenue an unexpectedly strong 18 percent as cash-strapped consumers went shopping online, and Amazon’s own discount shipping program spurred purchases. 

Promotions and cost-consciousness — as customers eschewed a trip to the mall in favor of browsing for free online — helped it post a 21 percent sales gain in North America. 

“It tells you how well they’re executing and winning business with customers and increasing share of wallet with their consumers,” said Steve Weinstein at Pacific Crest Securities.

He noted that Amazon’s U.S. business was growing faster than the overall e-commerce market. “It’s an incredible feat.”

Chief Executive Jeff Bezos said sales of the company’s Kindle had “exceeded our most optimistic expectations.”

Just how wonderful is your brand?

Just how “wonderful” consumers think your brand is can help your stock price, especially in a recession, according to a study by market research agencies Kadence, Brand Care and So What Research.

The study looked at consumer perceptions of 650 leading U.S. brands and found there is a link between the affection consumers hold for a brand — or the “wonderfulness” of the brand – and its stock performance.  

According to the study, the ten most wonderful brands in the eyes of U.S. consumers are (in descending order) Hershey’s, Google, Sony, Kraft, Crayola, Kellogg’s, Scotch Tape, Wii, Rolls Royce and Johnson & Johnson.

The ten least wonderful brands are (from bottom up) National Enquirer, AIG, Botox, Kia, alli, Hummer, O The Oprah Magazine, Dress Barn, ChemLawn and Direct Buy.

In terms of value, brands that were seen as offering the best ratio of wonderfulness to cost were Wal-Mart, Google, Amazon, Hershey’s, Target, Cheerios, Campbell, PBS, Yahoo and eBay.

Brands that were seen as offering the worst ratio of wonderfulness to cost were Hummer, Botox, Prada, Land Rover, Gucci, AIG, Saks Fifth Avenue, Louis Vuitton, Maserati and Ferrari.

“Detailed analysis of responses shows a strong correlation between the level of consumer affection and stock performance in 2008,” said Owen Jenkins, CEO of Boston-based Kadence Business Research, in a statement. 

Your new Kindle is talking — but not paying

Amazon’s hotly anticipated Kindle e-reader got even more press on Wednesday, but not the good variety.

In an op-ed titled “The Kindle Swindle” that appeared in the New York Times Wednesday, the president of the Author’s Guild, Roy Blount Jr., took Amazon to task for its text-to-speech function on the new Kindle that began shipping this week.

The new Kindle can read books aloud — but unlike audio books, royalties are not paid to authors. Blount argues the technology Amazon uses to turn text into a human voice is quickly improving, and authors need to be “duly vigilant” about this new means of transmitting their work.

The Guild, which is studying the issue, has called the Kindle’s speech function a “significant challenge to the publishing industry.” It has recommended to its members that they bring up the issue of the Kindle when negotiating new book contracts.

Publishers certainly could contractually prohibit Amazon from adding audio functionality to its e-books without authorization, and Amazon could comply by adding a software tag that would prohibit its machine from creating an audio version of a book unless Amazon has acquired the appropriate rights. Until this issue is worked out, Amazon may be undermining your audio market as it exploits your e-books.

In his op-ed, Blount assured readers that the Guild will continue to provide free audio availability to the blind — and pooh-poohed suggestions that parents should expect lawsuits from reading bedtime stories to their children.

For the record: no, the Authors Guild does not expect royalties from anybody doing noncommercial performances of “Goodnight Moon.” If parents want to send their children off to bed with the voice of Kindle 2, however, it’s another matter.