Kindle Review

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Kindles in schools - SRC Stock Charts on Kindle - Kobo2 Review - Colour Kindle

A Story About Another School Trying Out Kindles

In fact, 200 Kindles. Nashville High School in Arkansas is using the Kindle in English classes, in hopes that it'll be possible to use them in other subject-areas as a replacement for paper textbooks.

School officials hope it'll encourage students to read more (this is likely, as it's a common experience for those who use e-Ink devices) and do their school work "more efficiently." For non-fiction books especially, the way the Search function works and also the way that Annotations are kept on both the device and the special password-protected Annotations webpage are a boon in my case.

The brief video (delivered by the tv newsperson with strange inflections) includes a response by one student, who's not only happy to be able to use a Kindle but she wants one when she graduates -- it'll be interesting to see what the e-reader field looks like at that time though.

Securities Research Company's Stock Chart Books Now Available On the Kindle
From their PRNewswire:

' Securities Research Company's Digital Division, SRC Digital (www.srcdigital.com), today announced that it has released its best-selling "The SRC Blue Book® 12-Year NYSE Stock Chart®" and five other titles in the Amazon Kindle Store using Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing.
Other titles released in the Kindle Store include "The SRC Orange Book® of 12-year NASDAQ Charts®", "The SRC Industry Book® of 12-year Charts®", "The SRC ADR Book® of 12-Year Charts®", "The SRC ETF Book® of 12-Year Charts®" and "The SRC Red Book® of 21-Month Charts®". Customers can download these publications from the Kindle Store and receive weekly or monthly updates depending on the title. Additional titles will be rolled out over the next few months until all of SRC's publications are available in the Kindle Store. '

The cost is not trivial, of course.

Kobo, now with WiFi - a Review
Adam Turner reviews the new Kobo and its online store at Borders, for smh.com.au. He finds the store slow-going and feels the Search option is where the Kobo "falls short" and makes him miss the QWERTY keyboard of the Kindle. The onscreen keyboard uses the 5-way rocker to move from one letter to the next and doesn't always detect presses unless you go slowly.

He's impressed that they squeezed in the WiFi features for the same price as the old model but says it has a "long way to go before it can rival the slick Amazon/Kindle user experience." He doesn't recommend the Kobo over the Kindle "unless you're determined to stick with the ePub format rather than Amazon’s eBook format."

Our First Year With Amazon Kindle as an Independent Publisher
FutureBook's very upbeat report on the first year with Amazon as an independent publisher is an interesting read. The main reason I'm mentioning it here, though, as a news bit, is what popped out at me in the paragraphs below written by steveemecz:

' Where is it going? My contacts at Amazon can’t share anything specific, but they did say that the customer experience, both for consumers and publishers is a key focus.
Well, in 2011 we expect to see Kindle device sales and follow on book sales go from strength to strength. Amazon themselves have big expansion plans and that will mean more footfall through the Kindle stores. We expect them to launch Kindle into new countries ... and of course there has been lots of talk around the colour Kindle device. '

There has? With their Amazon contacts? Or with others? (See earlier reports.) "Show me the ~~money~~ colour!"

Kindle 3's (UK: Kindle 3's), DX Graphite
Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources. Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

View the original article here

Google eBooks change alert. Flip it! Hints page. Kindle Tic Tac Toe

GOOGLE EBOOKS STORE UPDATE
The first item is to alert Google RSS users that the "A Million Free Google Books in ePub - for Kindle - UPDATE2" Google-book-conversion blog article was updated today due to changes in the Google eBookstore procedures for finding and downloading their eBooks.

FLIP IT! HINTS
Here is a requested page for Flip it! hints for the tougher levels of the 40-level game.

TIC TAC TOE - A 2-character game instead of a word game

The 7 Dragons group is at it again, after reaching Bestseller #5 status with their Flip it! game this week.

Released last night, Tic Tac Toe is an old favorite, now available for Kindle.

From the Product Description:

'Tic Tac Toe by 7 Dragons brings the simple but classic game of Tic Tac Toe to Kindle.
Similar to the pen-and-paper experience from the school days, choose your Xs or Os and try to line up three in a row. "Pass and Play" allows you to play against a friend, or choose to play against Kindle with three different difficulty levels. Game statistics allow you to keep track of high scores for each difficulty level.
Tic Tac Toe is good entertainment for kids, and a fun way to take a break! '

Also newly available (3 days ago) is Video Poker - People are forgiving its slowness, as it's free. That does go a long way. The Tic Tac Toe, at 99 cents, though, is worth a look.

View the original article here

Friday, February 25, 2011

Downloadable Bookmarks file. Revised 1/25/11 - Ongoing file

UPDATE 1/25/11
This is to let readers know that the ongoing Kindle Bookmarks file ("Mobiweb WebLinks") has been revised.

I've added the download-link for this file + upload-date to the reference column on the right side of the website so that people can check the date of the latest one.

I'll continue to add more sites as I go but won't be announcing revisions for smaller changes, so check the file every now and then.

TIP: You can bookmark pages in this 'book'-like file.
A Kindle-3 user wrote to ask about skipping past the Kindle-2 section. To do that make a bookmark with alt-b (this key-combo toggles a bookmark on and off for the page you're on -- check the dog-ear at the top right to see if it's "taken" when you do a bookmark).

To get to any bookmarks you've made in a book file, press Menu button and select "View My Notes & Marks" while that book is open.

But Kindle 3-users won't need to go further than the Kindle 3 section now, as I've added, into each weblinks listing, the individual Mobile Website-Downsizer sites (which emphasize text portions of pages to increase loading speed on the Kindle).

These include Skweezer, Cantoni, Reading the Net (new) and Web On Your Cell.

Until Amazon revises how the web browser works, I've kept in the Google-features advice on workarounds for problems accessing versions of GMail or other tools with the Kindle 3.

See the basuc information on using the file in the earlier and main Bookmarks article that explains more.

In the meantime, let me know if you have any trouble getting the file. Thanks!

Photo credit: petittscreations.com.

View the original article here

Kindle News 2/15-17, including costs of putting out a newspaper Kindle edition - UPDATE for Borders-Aus. & Lendle

KINDLE NEWS SNIPPETS actually. Saw a few interesting articles and just want to mention them and give links for those interested in reading any of them at the source. There are more than a few, so I'll keep these relatively brief.

UPDATE - 2/17 to include the new Lendle book lending site and to note that Borders Australia is telling customers that gift cards there can be redeemed only if customers buy double the amount of the card.

BARRONS: "Amazon Is Smoking With Kindle"
Barrons says they are raising their estimates for Amazon and taking their price target to $230 [from $195]. Reasons are higher unit shipments anticipated or assumed (for both models of the K3) and Amazon's web services (AWS "gaining traction much faster than expected.") It's not just a shopping place anymore. They add that:

'In our view, Kindle remains the best ebook reader in the market and competition is unable to dent its market share.
... As far as the influx of tablets is concerned, there is no doubt that reading ebooks is one of the dozens of features offered by the tablets, but we believe that for the core book readers the value proposition offered by Kindle remains unmatchable (i.e. selection of ebooks, battery life, no backlight and glaring screen, free 3G, overall form factor, convenience to buy new books, etc.). '

A lot more detail at the link, of course.

"E Ink Holdings reports record-high earnings"
Amy Su, reporting for The Taipei Times, writes that "E Ink Holdings Inc, the world’s biggest e-paper display supplier, yesterday reported record-high quarterly net earnings, aided by the global uptake of e-readers, such as Amazon’s Kindle series."

"Fourth-quarter net income grew more than seven times to NT$1.92 billion (US$65 million)..."

This is happening despite the flood of color tablets with e-reader capabilities flooding the market.

CNN: "Best business decision of decade: Kindle app?"
CNN Money's David Goldman writes that:
"AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson called Amazon's Kindle e-reader app the 'gutsiest and savviest business decision of the past decade' during a keynote address on Tuesday."

"At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the wireless giant's CEO said Amazon's decision to put its application on every conceivable kind of device -- even though it sells its own e-reader -- made the company 'the poster child' of the cloud computing movement."

"When Amazon met the iPad challenge by giving users a chance to buy a competitors' tablet over its own [probably knowing they are so different and complementary that they would be co-existing devices for most], analysts called it a brave and bold move. But Stephenson said it is now clear that Amazon's decision was incredibly intelligent."

The article discusses the cloud-computing aspect, which Stephenson considers "the path forward."

Computer World's report on Stephenson's talk, including opinions on Apple
There is also an extremely detailed report by Matt Hamblen on Stephenson's entire talk and his mentions of Apple policies, at Computerworld.

KindleLendingClub renamed BookLending Club
The size of the Kindle Lending Club seems to have caught Amazon's attention and it's been "rebranded" at Amazon's request. The estimated 20,000 members going to the site will be automatically redirected to its new home, BookLending.com.

LendInk - Lending club for Kindles and Nooks
The Next Web's Martin Bryant reviews a new e-book lending club, LendInk, which offers a lending hub for Kindle and Nook users. He considers using the site "as simple as could possibly be" and "the best-looking solution we've seen," adding that LendInk’s interface is "a little more streamlined and is targeting a wider audience with support for the Nook in addition to the Kindle." Obviously, there's no reason why Kindle owners interested in using the feature would not use both. While publishers might be concerned, it also creates even more interest in e-readers and e-books (though the large publishers seem queasy about e-book interest).

Update - 2/17 (Original posting 2/16, 3:40 AM)
Lendle - New lending club, this one for Kindles only
The Guardian (UK) has a story on the new lending site "Lendle" (lendle.me).
Note to publishers: Lendle founder Brian Ericford posts that, in the first week, they've actually sold more books than they've lent.
The availability of these lending sites for Kindle books should be especially useful for those lamenting the lack of public library loaning.

BORDERS and bankruptcy filing - Giftcards
One story had an interesting last thought:
"One possible upside? The demise of superstore booksellers could revitalize the neighborhood bookstore."

Update continued - 2/17
Borders did file for bankrupcy and the U.S. offices said they will honor giftcards and try to do business as normal while shutting down hundreds of stores and losing 75% of their value, with the stock at 23 cents. However, Borders in Australia announced that their customers will have to buy double the amount in order to use their gift cards. This is not going over well, per the Sydney Morning Herald.

Another story cautions those holding giftcards to use them before the bankruptcy filing sometime this week. Often they're not accepted after that, though Circuit City did honor mine.

"The True Cost OF Publishing on the Amazon Kindle" (in the UK)
PC Pro (UK explains the various costs involved with the distribution of newspapers and magazines in Kindle Edition format, in the UK -- why there are few photos (if any) in some editions (photos increase the size of a file by quite a bit relative to pure text), and the calculation of delivery costs of an issue sent over 3G wireless there (no delivery costs involved when/if delivered over WiFi).
Notes in Brackets are mine.

' Amazon charges 10p per MB [about 16 cents per MB U.S.] for delivery of newspapers and magazines in the UK.
By Amazon’s own estimates, a “typical newspaper” with 100 articles and 15 to 20 images would have a file size of between 0.5MB and 1MB – or around 10% of the overall revenue [16 cents per megabyte], considering most newspapers sell for 99p [$1.60 US] per day.
It [distribution costs] would be an even greater share of the publisher’s profits if users signed up for a cheaper subscription.
For a magazine like PC Pro those costs would be significantly greater. Each issue of the magazine has somewhere around 75 new reviews – each with a picture – plus dozens more articles and features. An issue of PC Pro with around 150 separate articles, and 100 photos would likely incur delivery costs of 50p-60p [80-97 cents) an issue. We can pop a magazine in the post to subscribers for significantly less than that. '

To make things worse -- in the UK, Value-Added Tax is charged on e-magazines but not on paper
Read more, including calculations for revenue sharing. They point out that Amazon sets the pricing of the periodicals, just as they do for the blogs. Too low a price means PCPro would "take a hit on the delivery costs" and could "severely undercut" their print edition, and if Amazon pushes for maximum profit, that can create extreme unhappiness with a newspaper's subscribers.

View the original article here

A Million Free Google Books in ePub - for Kindle - UPDATE4

UPDATE2-4, 2/6/11 - Original posting was 8/27/09, Update1 was made 4/22/10.

Google has combined its free Google books with ones they sell now, and the earlier instructions (below) on how to find downloadable, free files no longer apply.
The rest of it is the same, however.

Google seems to have combined the free books with the paid books and now may require you to (1) have a Google account for downloading Google e-books as well as (2) a credit card even to download a free book *IF it's not a public-domain book* (corrected information from @mikecane).

I had a credit card with Google already because I had experimented with buying a web-version of a paid Google Book when the Google web Bookstore was launched, and I was asked for it when I tried to download "The eBook Insider" - which is free but is NOT a public domain book.

I used it today to 'buy' this $0.00 Google eBook to test whether these are still easily convertible to Kindle format AND uploadable to Retroread (see details below), who will convert free *public-domain* Google files for the Kindle community, at no cost. If someone else has already requested a particular free Public Domain Google eBook, it'll be listed on the Retroread site as downloadable by everyone else for their Kindles.

The basic steps when I 'bought' this currently-free NON-public-domain book:

. Click on a book you want and it'll give you the option to 'buy' it even if its $0.00 AND if it's NOT a public-domain book. It'll give you the option to "Get" it if it's in the public domain, and you can then click to download it.
. After 'buying' it, I received these alerts:
"This book has been added to My Google eBooks" and
"Access all your Google eBooks at books.google.com"
. After clicking on "My Google Books," you can see the books you've downloaded, both paid and free.
. Click on the book you just received and you're given options to
"Read now" (which would be in web-browser version) OR
"Read on your device" (Nook, Sony, Kobo etc but not Kindle)
Google then offers you the following choices to be able to read the new book:
1. Installing a Smartphones app (Android) or a Tablet app (iPhone & iPad)
2. Laptop and computers (reading in web browser)
3. eReader and other devices
a. ePub
b. Adobe PDF (*IF* included)
Choose "ePub"

*NOTE*: Retroread could NOT convert my free Google book because it isn't a public-domain book and is therefore not successfully searchable on their site. I then converted it via Calibre as described below.

Again, when a Google eBook IS public domain and free, you are given the option to "GET" the book without purchasing it. When you click to accept that option, the eBook winds up in your Google library.

The earlier section below explains how to get and use Calibre to easily convert any free ePub Google file to Kindle format or use Retroread site to have it done for you if the book is in the public domain.

UPDATE1, 4/22/10 - Original posting was 8/27/09 (Kindle model info updated)
I've added, at the bottom of this post, a section about a new service that will convert a Google Book FOR you (using the method below) and send it to your Kindle if you want (Amazon charges 15 cents per megabyte of a file if Whispernet delivery of a file) OR to the email address you use for correspondence with Amazon (no cost involved).

Original Posting on How to Convert free Google ePub books to Kindle format

Aug. 27, 2009 -- Yesterday Google offered over a million free e-books in EPUB format as well as in PDF format.

These are easier to work with because they involve text-reflow instead of keeping a page exactly as originally laid out and therefore with words too small on e-screens. Also, Google has done that text-reflow for us, which should bring more reliable to-MOBI conversions for files that had originally been among the more-complex PDFs.
This will also allow highlighting, note-adding, font-size adjustments, and will be included in search results when the full Kindle is searched for key words. We just need to convert them to MOBI files.

Some newspapers are reporting the million+ free Google files are not readable on the Kindle.
They are. They just need a simple conversion.

There are currently at least three popular free tools that can convert ePub files to Kindle-compatible MOBI files: (1) mobigen.exe (not intuitive); (2) Mobipocket Reader 6.2 (loses some of the styling); and (3) Calibre, which has a nice interface, is easy to use, works with pc's and Macs, and gets the best results.

So, Calibre it is. Many use it already for organized computer records of their Kindle files or for retrieving combinations of newspaper feeds for their Kindles (not as easily navigated as the paid subscrptions).
This blog article focuses only on converting the ePub file-format to a Kindle-readable one.

If you don't already have this free software, created and maintained by Kovid Goyal, download Calibre here.

GET A FREE GOOGLE BOOK OR TWO
To get a free Google book (most written before 1923 but there are some nice older magazines there as well), go to Google's book site.

~~To find a free book (they are all mixed with $$$-books), click on "Full Preview" as those tend to be the free ones. Then do a search for what you want.~~

~~At the top right, once you choose a book, you'll see "Download" which will be a pull-down menu showing a choice of PDF or ePub.~~ (See update of Feb. 6, 2011, above.)

If you have a Kindle DXG, you might prefer to just get the PDF. If the words on the PDF are too small though, then get the ePub file. IF you download an ePub file, then:

CALIBRE
Open and run Calibre. On the LEFT will be your choices for set-up when you're converting a document. Hovering over anything will usually bring a help tip.

Accepting defaults is fine. The ability to change the "meta information" is nice - so you can have names and authors as you like them. If there is no Table of Contents you can 'force' Calibre to create one.

At the top are choices to "Edit meta information: as well as "Convert E-books." Follow the instructions, and then press the 'OK' button and the conversion will take a few minutes. I did one and moved it to the Kindle DX and it looks great.

Oh, Calibre gives you the option to optimize your converted file for the Kindle 2 or the Kindle DX.

So, yes, those million+ free Google books are fully useable on the Kindle - it just needs this added step, but it's also great to be able to customize so much of the layout if you want. Play with the software a bit.

THE BOOK STORES - MASHABLE'S POINTS
The report by Mashable's Stan Schroeder makes some good points:

"... the first major difference between the Kindle and this Google-Sony open book strategy: while Amazon only offers 300,000 titles, Google’s million books aren’t, for the most part, the most attractive ones, and Sony’s own ebook library doesn’t offer a choice as good as Amazon – at least when it comes to modern titles.
Sure, if you’re interested in an oldie, such as the Memoirs of Granville Sharp, Google’s library is a good choice, but if you’re looking to buy a digital copy of the latest bestseller, you’re more likely to find it on the Kindle than in Google’s library and Sony’s ebook store combined. You can sometimes buy an ebook online and then transfer it to your Sony ebook reader, but on the Kindle it’s simpler and easier to do.

Also see:
Read foreign-language Google-books in English online
Google describes the book conversion process
How to download any of the 30,000 Project Gutenberg books to your Kindle, direct.

UPDATE 4/22/10 - RETROREAD'S AUTOMATED GOOGLE BOOK CONVERSIONS
RetroRead (BLTC Press) offers free conversion of any free ePub Google Book to Amazon Kindle format for delivery to your Kindle or to your computer via your normal email address. As RetroRead's David Eyes describes in his Blitzes at BLTC blog you will be able to create an account through which you may upload any free Google ePub book (but ONLY Google book files), and have it converted and forwarded directly to you. He adds that the quality of the converted book can vary greatly depending on the quality of Google’s optical character recognition (OCR) conversion. The site is self-explanatory.

Once you've registered and read the Terms of Use, you can go to http://books.google.com and choose a free Google book to read, downloading the ePub version to your computer, at which point you're given the option to have that downloaded file automatically uploaded to Retroread for immediate conversion to Kindle format (using RetroReadhelper -- Windows for that though) and then either sent to your Kindle* or to your email address or linked at the Retroread site where you can download the converted file and then move it to your Kindle via the USB cable.

* If you do want the direct-to-Kindle option, you need to have created earlier a special address for files to your Kindle -- [you]@kindle.com ...
So be sure you've set up a [you]@kindle.com address first. This setup is done at your Amazon "Manage Your Kindle" page. Here's a guide for using that management page.
This would involve letting RetroRead have your [you]@kindle.com address and, as mentioned, the Amazon fee for whispernet delivery would apply (15 cents per megabyte of a book -- with most ePub books under 1 megabyte -- but the one I uploaded tonight was over 2 megs because some pages were image scans). However, you can also choose to just get the converted file and move it to the Kindle yourself. Read his blog for the additions he's made to the site's capabilities. Lots of good things.

You can also choose recently converted Google books that are listed as available for download on the left side of the RetroRead page.

For those looking for interesting less-seen free books, it's hard to do better than David's list of the Latest Converted files.

At any rate, this is a quick intro. I tried it last night and it works well. The book I converted for this blog article was used at Retroread, and the results were the 99% the same, since RetroRead uses Calibre also, although the last half of the final page, which happened to be the Table of Contents page at the end, was missing.

Many will find this service very convenient. But the service is not offered for any ePub books other than the Google books. However, you can use this blog guide to do that yourself as needed. Your own conversion from ePub to Amazon format should take about three minutes after you've had a chance to work with it.

Kindle 3 (UK: Kindle 3), DX Graphite
Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources. Top 100 free bestsellers.
Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

View the original article here

Update v2.6 for Kindle for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad - Real page numbers etc

The Kindle for iPhone (also for iPod Touch and iPad) app has been updated with version 2.6 with the following new features:

Real page numbers for thousands of books in the Kindle Store. Now you can make proper citations in the classroom or follow along with people reading print books in a book club.View your percentage completed while reading [new for iPhone/iPod Touch].Home screen now shows your progress through books in list view.Look up words on Google and Wikipedia without leaving the app.Instant word lookup on included dictionary with 250,000 entries and definitions

You can see full details and download the new update by clicking the top image at the Kindle for iPhone/iPod Touch app page. You'll get the same info at the Kindle for iPad app page except that it doesn't include "View your percentage completed while reading" as a new feature for the iPad (it may have been included before).

Thanks to Golf11 (Randall) again for the alert Sunday.

View the original article here

Amazon's 4th Qtr Results: Reactions, Kindle Profitability

The Wall Street Journal Blog's Dan Gallagher, after Amazon's 4th Qtr report Thursday, writes that while the Amazon Kindle is "far and away the most popular of the dedicated e-reader devices on the market"..."it remains unclear just how much profit – if any – the company is able to realize from the device and its associated e-books business."

It's an interesting angle because most of the stories are about how Amazon sold 115 e-books (not counting free ones) for every 100 paperbacks sold, during the first quarter of this year so far and that includes paperback books for which there is no Kindle edition. This would include a spurt of e-book buying after Kindles were opened during the holidays, but it's not unlikely that the new Kindle owners would continue to buy e-books more often than they'd bought printed books, as that is a common report.

Retail Gazette in the U.K. pointed out that Jeff Bezos remarked:

' Last July we announced that Kindle books had passed hardcovers and predicted that Kindle would surpass paperbacks in the second quarter of this year, so this milestone has come even sooner than we expected - and it’s on top of continued growth in paperback sales. '

I won't quote all the details of the dollar stats, as you can just read them in any of the financial articles, including the ones linked here, but the WSJ's Gallagher brings up an interesting point, re profitability on the Kindle.

Although the company reiterated that it has sold more units of the Kindle 3 than the final book in the Harry Potter series, making it Amazon's top-selling product ever, Gallagher continues:

'...the revenue boost may not be flowing to Amazon’s bottom line; in fact, it may even be weighing it down.
For one, it looks likely that Amazon makes little to no money on the device itself. A study by market-research firm iSuppli last year estimated the total cost of materials for the 3G Kindle at $155.56 – about $33 less than the $189 selling price for the device.
Since iSuppli’s estimates do not include the cost of software, licensing, royalties, manufacturing expenses (Amazon outsources production of the Kindle) and a cut for the wireless carriers, analysts suspect Amazon likely sells the Kindle at a slight loss. '

When asked about this during a conference call with analysts Thursday, Amazon's financial officer, Tom Szkutak, "refused" to give specifics about the Kindle's profitability.

Many have brought up the razor-razorblade model for the Kindle and Amazon's e-books. But Ben Schachter of Macquarie Research feels that "lack of profits from the device, along with Amazon’s move to sell more lower-margin electronics and general merchandise, is keeping pressure on the bottom line" and therefore there is frustration that "margins are not improving."

" 'That's why people are frustrated that margins are not improving,' Schachter says. 'Any margin improvement from e-books is being hurt by spending, the [cost of] Kindle hardware and the shift into [electronics and general merchandise] categories. Amazon is willing to push margin on that to make money over the long term.' "

Even though Net Sales increased 36% to $12.95 billion in the 4th Qtr and Net Income increased 8% to $16 million, there was "unfavorable impact" from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, and shares sank 9% after hours Thursday.

It's all about high expectations -- and even then Amazon's net income beat expectations, hitting 91 cents per share while analysts had expected 88 cents per share, per Factset. However, they'd "expected" more than 36% net sales and Amazon also "warned that operating profit could decline as much as 34 percent [AB here: or as little as 2 percent] compared with the first quarter of 2010" as they invest long-term in building the company.

Other highlights:
. It was Amazon's first $10 billion quarter.
. The U.S. Kindle store now contains 810,000 books, including New Releases and 107 of the 112 books on the New York Times best-seller list. About two-thirds of the books cost $9.99 or less, the company said.
(Barnes & Noble, as well as Sony, count the ~1.5 million free public domain Google books in their totals.)

In its SEC 10-K filing dated January 28, 2011, Amazon has to set out all the possibilities, especially the negative ones, and it's an interesting read. Of note for us customers, Authorlink.com writes:

' The company plans to rapidly and significantly expand global operations, including increasing product and service offerings and scaling infrastructure to support retail and services businesses. This expansion increases the complexity of its business and places significant strain on management, personnel, operations, systems, technical performance, financial resources, and internal financial control and reporting functions. In assessing the risks of its growth, the company said "We may not be able to manage growth effectively, which could damage our reputation, limit our growth and negatively affect our operating results," the filing said. '

That's par for the course with SEC 10-K filings.
The PR release says it, of course, more positively: "Our results are inherently unpredictable and may be materially affected by many factors, such as fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and consumer spending, world events, the rate of growth of the Internet and online commerce and the various factors detailed..."

The SEC 10-K filing continues on in the vein quoted by Authorlink and they end the article with, "Despite these risks, the company expects significant growth next year."

View the original article here