Shop Talk

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.

from MediaFile:

Mobile sales are helping eBay, but is it enough?

eBay said Wednesday that the value of goods sold in the U.S. through its mobile applications surged 133% to $100 million during the month before Christmas. Globally, the growth was even stronger: Up 166% to $230 million worth of goods.

That is good news from one angle. eBay is having success using mobile devices to sell goods during the busiest retailing period of the year. But it obscures another fact: Mobile sales may be a growing market, but it's a tiny portion of eBay's overall sales. And overall sales don't appear to be growing nearly as fast.

eBay's Gross Merchandise Volume (the total value of all goods sold through eBay) was $48.3 billion in 2009, excluding car sales, and that figure is likely to top $50 billion in 2010. The $230 million GMV of mobile sales is equal to only 0.5% of eBay's total GMV last year.

Put another way, the volume of goods sold through mobile devices during the holiday season is about 6 percent of the average volume of goods sold each month on eBay.

Overall, eBay's holiday business grew but not as fast as other online retailers. According to ChannelAdvisor, a software company working with online retailers, eBay's holiday business increased 11% during the busy Thanksgiving weekend, lagging the 68% growth rate for Amazon and the overall e-commerce growth rate of 27%.

eBay has a chance to use the growing popularity of its mobile apps to boost that growth rate in coming years. But if it wants to grow as fast as the rest of the e-commerce industry does during the Christmas season, it needs to find some additional incentives.

from MediaFile:

When gamers hit Toys R Us and other tales of Black Friday

Sprinkled among the snaking lines of parents at a Toys R Us in New Jersey on Black Friday were diehard gamers. Many had no children to spoil. Nor were they particularly happy to be in the Toys R Us; but with gaming hardware fast selling out across the region, they followed the scent of the deal.

The Kinect moved especially fast, if early anecdotal evidence is any measure. Brisk sales of  hardware like the PlayStation3, Xbox and Microsoft Kinect on the nation's biggest annual shopping spree also bode well for software sales, says Mike Hickey, a Janco Partners analyst.

But which games were enticing fans to shell out on Black Friday?

“ We’re seeing strong sales of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood (Ubisoft), Just Dance 2 (Ubisoft), Call of Duty: Black Ops (Activision Blizzard), Red Dead Redemption (Take-Two Interactive), Fallout: New Vegas (Bethesda), Gran Turismo 5 (Polyphony Digital) and Donkey Kong (Nintendo),” Hickey said.

Many of the hottest video items weren't even on sale. The Microsoft Kinect, which was not discounted at any retailer on Black Friday (in fact, the price got jacked up on many secondary sellers' websites), was out of stock both in stores and online at WalMart, Target and Best Buy.

GameStop also weighed in on Friday morning, telling Reuters about the traffic at its 800 US stores which opened at midnight, which were helped in part by the interest in the Kinect.  “Preliminary reports from our stores record a lot of excitement,” said GameStop’s president Tony Bartel,” and there were many customers lined up at 5 am when the rest of the stores opened.

NPD analyst Stephen Baker said video games were “one of the better categories this holiday,” but low-priced televisions and aggressively priced laptops were  the biggest sellers on Black Friday.

Butterflies and birds byte into NY Fashion Week

Spotted at New York Fashion Week: Butterflies and hummingbirds hovered inside the tents, but these particular species came equipped with at least a gigabyte or two.

Designer Vivienne Tam’s“Butterfly Lovers” digital clutch laptop from Hewlett-Packard made its debut on the runway with her Spring and Summer 2010 collection. Just inside the entrance to the Bryant Park Tents, a hummingbird was ready for its close-up — on the cover of one of the Palm Pixi Artist Series limited-edition cellphones on display.

Just two of the most colorful examples of how fashion is using technology to court design-savvy customers, one of the biggest trends seen at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, which wrapped up late Thursday night.

“For me, fashion plus technology equals ‘double happiness,’” Tam told Reuters backstage.

Indeed, the “enter” key on her latest HP laptop is imprinted with the Chinese characters for “double happiness.”

The champagne-gold laptop will have more capacity and more features than her first limited-edition HP digital clutch with the red “Peony” print cover, which Tam unveiled on the runway last September. The “Peony” laptop — light enough for a woman to carry like a clutch evening bag — has 1 gigabyte of RAM, according to the Neiman Marcus online catalog, where it’s listed “in stock” for $699.99.

Tam says her inspiration came from the classic Chinese love story, the “Butterfly Lovers,” who are regarded as China’s “Romeo and Juliet.” A classical music lover, Tam noted that this year is the 50th anniversary of the Butterfly Lovers Concerto.

Check Out Line: Technology getting front-row seat at NY Fashion Week

Check out how designers at New York’s Fashion Week are using technology for inspiration, on the runway, behind the scenes and for business.

In its most obvious cameo, technology showed up at Vivienne Tam’s Spring 2009 show on Tuesday, where models sashayed down the runway clutching slim, red HP notebook computers instead of evening bags.

The limited-edition computer, which she called a “digital clutch,” featured the Tam collection’s signature red peony print on its cover. It will be available early next year, sometime around the Chinese New Year, Tam told a Reuters reporter backstage before her show Tuesday night.

She added that the peony’s petals on the laptop cover symbolize multi-tasking, which is synonymous with being a woman in today’s tech-oriented society she said.

HP said it’s the first time a fashion designer has partnered with a computer company, though others are teaming up with mobile phone companies.

LG Mobile Phones said on Thursday it is partnering with budding fashion designer Christian Siriano, who made the media spotlight for winning Season Four of Bravo television’s popular reality show “Project Runway”.

At Siriano’s fashion show on Thursday, he will show a scarf designed for LG’s newest phone, the LG Lotus.