Amazon Kindle Owners Receive Presidential Exclusives
Since Amazon's Kindle introduction to the world last year, the company has increased the number of available book titles for the portable reader from 90,000 to over 170,000. Most of these titles have also been available at significantly lower prices than their bookshelf counterparts. Amazon is now looking to use the help of the hype surrounding the elections this year to improve its Kindle sales. As of today, Amazon has announced that they will offer two new political books well before their publication dates exclusively on the Amazon Kindle.
Exclusive Looks at the Potential First Ladies
Today, Amazon Kindle owners can look forward to purchasing the biographies of both Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama well ahead of their scheduled publication dates. Elizabeth Lightfoot's "Michelle Obama: Grace and Intelligence in a Time of Change" will be available starting today for only $9.99. Those without a Kindle won't be able to purchase the book until its release date, which has yet to be announced. "Cindy McCain: Elegance, Good Will and Hope for a New America" by Alicia Colon will be available to Kindle owners on Monday. However, this autobiography will only hit the shelves if McCain wins the election.
A Successful Continuing Trend?
The Amazon Kindle is currently available for $359, which is a pretty hefty price. The 190,000+ available books are available for download in less than 60 seconds according to Amazon Kindle Vice-President, Ian Freed. For political debaters and those that are focused on consuming everything about this year's election candidates and more, Amazon could see a huge increase in Kindle sales, but only if the trend continues. We doubt that just two exclusive books would be enough.
This isn't the first time Amazon has given exclusives to Kindle owners first. Just two days ago Amazon offered "Change We Can Believe In: Barack Obama's Plan to Renew America's Promise" to Kindle owners one day before its scheduled publication date. While this doesn't compare to what Amazon is doing today and Monday, the offer must have been relatively successful. With more offers like this in the future, we think Amazon has what it takes to make the Kindle a household name to surpass its current estimated number of owners of over 200,000.
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Recently, ultra portable laptops with very long battery life are coming out. Can amazon Kindle compete with these laptops?
Great article, but I think I noticed a small typo -- those books about the First Lady hopefuls are not autobiographies, but biographies, I believe.
You were right Noah. Thanks for catching that.
Netmark - I think people will be using these ultra portable laptops for different reasons than what Kindle caters to.
I know this was inevitable, but it is disappointing to see another semi-exclusive distribution channel in place that incorporate physical media "lockdown." It's only a short jump to Kindle "exclusives" that require you to buy the device to read them. One could ask, of course, why anyone would be so commercially stupid as to limit usage of a file to one particular device ...