I am skeptical too of the number of a million units, as the Cool-er website has had the device backordered for a while now.
1 million in sales, as in money coming in, sounds much more accurate to me.
I think that the device has probably been selling relatively well, and eventually it could possibly take on Sony if its able to get distribution in physical stores. For those that aren't used to the idea of a ebook reader seeing on in person probably could push them in the direction of buying from them.
Amy
Maybe they're talking store orders, but not reporting sell-through? Does sound awfully high though!
Michael F Stewart
Author of 24 Bones, A Supernatural Thriller
Available on Kindle and Multiformat
i could easily believe 5000 units sold. in just few months for a niche product from a new company, that's still a pretty impressive, i'd say.
Quote Hadrien
They're a bunch of liars.
+1
another marketing wonk and more lies...seems to be the normal way marketing wonks work.
Quote Abecedary
Even if it is talking about £1m worth of Cool-ers sold, that just shows the level of this guys arrogance. "We've sold over 5,000 readers, so we can easily overtake the company that's sold well over 100x that amount." Basically he's just trying to promote his company as much as possible with little regard to the facts, which wouldn't be known to a casual reader of the Guardian anyways. They'll see him talking about how he thinks his company can easily overtake Sony (who they have heard of) and they'll say "Oh, these guys are a big player in the ebook market." I'm not sure if even robertb would make the types of claims this guy is making.
naw, he will just stick with statements like the competition is using a lower grade display or something similar and derogatory, of course we have already seen that from him here in the Cool-er Reader thread.
Quote Hadrien
They're a bunch of liars.
You tell 'em!
Don
YES, MOst likely the 1 mil of sales, instead of 1 mil of number of devices. LOL
A million unit is a large chunk of the whole market. there simply isn't enough screens around for 1 million ebooks for just one brand.
Cool-er: a netronix clone is decent in specs poor in software reader, but ODM can't seem to produce enough of them ...
I ordered mine early in august and only got mine until early sept.
From industrial news i heard VPI is only starting to expend the Eink production line and won't expect to be up and running for another quarter (or more)!
taiwan panel Giant AUO brought another epaper maker, also looking to massively expend production next year.
The
Guardian has now published a correction:
Quote
The panel accompanying a financial news feature on ebook reading devices said that the worldwide sales of one – the Cool-er ebook – now exceeded seven figures. This was the turnover in revenue terms, not the number of units sold (New leaf, 10 September, page 29).
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2009/sep/23/guardian-corrections-and-clarificationswell, thats 6000 units at best!
Which is around 700 units per colour
I am pretty sure demand exceed supply.
Lil wonder why they still on back order!
My bet was, Cooler and many other OEM readers will go back order until end of the year!
Quote Tuna
Don't ascribe to malicious intent what can simply be explained by incompetence.
Niel Jones says to journo "Sales have reached the million mark", referring to turnover or profits.. Journo searches for a snappy headline and translates it to "We've sold a million units".
In general, the UK media is rubbish. If you're expecting any kind of factual accuracy or understanding of the topic you're likely be disappointed. If a story seems unlikely, it's usually because the journalist screwed up when re-writing the press release they were given into the house style.
Therefore I blame this 100% on Niel Jones (whoever he is) for being too lazy to get the journo to give him a template + copy of the Guardian style guide so he could do a proper tailored press release ready to go straight into the paper.
