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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. The company said the Kindle, Apple’s 8GB iPod touch, Garmin’s nuvi 260W personal navigation device, and the BlackBerry Bold were among the most popular gadgets that customers purchased during the holiday shopping season this year.<\/p>\n
\nThe online retail giant also noted that its customers purchased more Kindle e-books than physical books on Christmas Day — a first for the company. However, not everyone buying e-books from Amazon this holiday season will be reading them on dedicated Kindle devices. <\/p>\n
\nAmazon has unleashed a Kindle app for the iPhone and iPod touch that users in 60 countries can download from Apple’s App Store. Moreover, in November the online retailer released a free Kindle for PC application that enables customers to read Kindle books on notebooks, netbooks and desktop PCs. <\/p>\n
A Cross-Platform Strategy<\/p>\n
\nThe reason for Amazon’s adoption of a cross-platform platform strategy is clear. Less than one percent of U.S. consumers read digital content on dedicated e-readers, mobile phones, or netbooks today, noted Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps. “Consumers are reading books digitally on multiple devices, and they will continue to do so,” she observed in a recent blog.<\/p>\n
\nAccording to a recent Forrester survey of 4,711 respondents, about three percent of U.S. consumers read e-books on their desktop computers, and two percent read them on their laptops. “Going forward, 19 percent of U.S. consumers say they are interested in reading e-books on their desktop PCs, 14 percent on e-readers, 11 percent on netbooks, and five percent on mobile phones,” Rotman Epps added.<\/p>\n
\nAmazon said its cross-platform moves are part of an evolving strategy under which the company also expects to release Kindle apps for BlackBerry smartphones and the Mac. All these… <\/p>\n
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