RSSAmazon CFO: New Kindle will wait until 2009
By Angela Gunn | Published October 23, 2008, 12:18 AM
2:56 pm PDT October 22, 2008 - Amazon's third-quarter earnings call had plenty of positive things to say about their success with the Kindle e-book reader. Good thing the company's happy with it, because it'll be the one and only Kindle for the remainder of the year.
CFO Tom Szkutak confirmed during this afternoon's call that there will be no newer model of the Kindle reader until 2009.
Amazon's third-quarter earnings met previous guidance, but share prices were down in after-hours trading. Fourth-quarter guidance, which Szkutak notes depends heavily on the currently volatile market and the strength of the dollar, indicates net sales growth of between 6 and 23 percent year-over-year.
6:40 pm PDT October 22, 2008 - Despite the song's cheery lyric, it's slightly ominous to have the hold music before the start of an earnings call playing "Penny Lane." But Amazon's numbers are -- with a Q3 net income rise of 48%, to $118 million (27 cents/share) -- better than that.
Except, perhaps, for their stock price. The company's fourth quarter guidance was even broader than usual, with company officials estimating $6-7 billion in revenue working out to 6-23% growth year-over-year.
Though that guidance is meant to take into account everything from exchange-rate volatility to market madness to possible holiday-season discounts to keep in line with competitors' actions, a range that wide means the possibility of results coming in on the low end.
A few surprising statistics emerged on the call, some of them having nothing to do with Harry Potter. (The fictional wizard's final book had a profound effect on numbers for Q3 '07. In the process of taking those into account for year-over-year earnings, Potter's name came up more times than did founder and CEO Jeff Bezos' -- leading one to wonder what portion of the world's economy might be brighter in outlook if J.K. Rowling would simply consent to write another book in the series.)
Kindle readers turn out to be inked-book readers still; Amazon estimates that customers who purchase a Kindle buy 1.6 times as many books for their gadgets as they bought in printed form -- and still buy as many printed books as ever. For titles available in both printed and Kindle formats, Kindle downloads account for about 10% of sales.
As for non-digital goods and their transport, Amazon reported a 71% increase in Amazon Prime unlimited-delivery memberships. To facilitate deliveries, three new fulfillment centers have been added in Indiana, Pennsylvania and Arizona, accounting for an unusually high rate of new hires in Q3 (over 2100).
Amazon share prices were down nearly 14% in after-hours trading, with the current price of $43.15 well below the company's 52-week low of $47.90.
"The income outlook at 6% would be $145 million; at 23%, it's just $305 million."
6% times 4 = 24%
$145 million times 4 = $580 million
Someone's math is wrong, or I'm missing something.
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|Yeah, numbers are not her strong point - or she characteristically forgot to add further info to substantiate the data. Whatever... It looks like we are just going to accept the flaw and mentally adjust.
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|No, correction OTW, and this time it was hasty math on my part, sorry. (Bad headphone sound + hasty note-taking = bad combo when it's time to herd the numbers. Ironically, of course, Amazon's one of the company's that's better than average re making the numbers easily available, so there's really not much excuse.) Sorry morriscox and thanks for the shout. That one annoys me at least as much as it does you :-) .
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|Proprietary... not gonna buy one.
I want to be able to treat my e-books the same as my physical ones. I want to be able to lend, resell or give them away as I deem fit.
I understand the arguments about the difference between digital and physical text media, but it doesn't mean I have to participate and accept.
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|Exactly! Why does whatever anyone mumbles about the Kindle receive so much coverage on this site?
To get the greater public to move from paper to electronic books a standard needs to be created.
I don't care about wireless connectivity, it's just going to suck up power. Form a global consortium and define an open standard. Make the devices read SD or whatever common medium. Any decent cell phone (well, not the 'i' one of course) can read/write SD cards so on-the-road distribution is solved. Doesn't the Kindle cost even more than a netbook these days?
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|I agree for the most part, Owilliams -- and I won't use an ebook reader for any book that's not in the public domain. (A few years ago I was testing a certain e-reader on the McCullough bio of John Adams, and the #(!@*@! thing crashed with about a chapter and a half left to go, taking all my margin notes right along into the ether. If you know the book, you can imagine my reaction.)
OTOH, for texts that *are* available in the public domain, I'm really fond of my ebook reader (no, not a Kindle; think much older). Hit Gutenberg, cram 'em on, and off you go. That solution won't help you much if all you read is newer stuff, but I've found some pretty wonderful reading material that way, and at the best of all possible prices :-) .
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