Today I was looking over the electronics bestsellers list at Amazon.com and thought the way the various Kindle models stack up against each other is interesting.
Currently the #1 bestselling Kindle is the 7″ Kindle Fire HD for $199. That’s somewhat surprising considering the fact that Amazon just ran a couple of sales on the 8.9″ Kindle Fire HDs this past week, but there’s only one of those in the top 20 of electronics overall.
Compared to the other Kindle models, the 8.9″ KFHD isn’t ranking nearly as high. Both E Ink Kindles are selling better than it and there’s only one of the 4G models on the list, and it’s all the way at #83. The old Kindle Keyboards from years ago are outselling it, and so is last year’s basic Kindle, which isn’t even available anymore.
Another interesting thing with the top 100 list is that the Special Offers Kindles always sell more than their ad-free counterparts. A lot of people complain about the ads but a lot of people are buying them anyway (it would be interesting to know how many people pay the extra fee to remove the ads after using the Kindle for awhile).
Here’s the overall list of Kindle devices and their overall ranking in the top 100 bestsellers list as of today 12/14/12:
#1. 7″ Kindle Fire HD 16GB with Special Offers – $199
#2. 7″ Kindle Fire with Special Offers – $159
#3. Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi with Special Offers – $119
#4. Basic Kindle with Special Offers – $69
#5. 8.9″ Kindle Fire HD 16GB with Special Offers – $299
#9. 7″ Kindle Fire HD 16GB without Special Offers – $214
#10. Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi without Special Offers – $139
#11. 7″ Kindle Fire HD 32GB with Special Offers – $249
#14. Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi +3G with Special Offers – $179
#19. 7″ Kindle Fire without Special Offers – $174
#25. 8.9″ Kindle Fire HD 32GB with Special Offers – $369
#26. Basic Kindle International Model – $89
#27. 8.9″ Kindle Fire HD 16GB without Special Offers – $314
#28. 7″ Kindle Fire HD 32GB without Special Offers – $264
#30. Kindle Keyboard 3G with Special Offers – $139
#32. Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi +3G without Special Offers – $199
#40. Basic Kindle without Special Offers – $89
#49. Basic Kindle with Special Offers (last year’s gray model) – unavailable
#53. 8.9″ Kindle Fire HD 32GB without Special Offers – $384
#63. Kindle Keyboard 3G without Special Offers – $159
#69. Basic Kindle without Special Offers (last year’s gray model) – $89
#83. 8.9″ Kindle Fire HD 4G LTE 32GB with Special Offers – $499
The only Kindles that didn’t make the top 100 list are the remaining three 8.9″ Kindle Fire HD models with 4G LTE.
The special offers are a bit annoying, no doubt, but most people don’t want to drop the extra scratch to get rid of them. They don’t interfere with the operation of the device while reading or navigating menus, so most don’t feel it’s a big deal. Sometimes, those special offers actually send you a good deal, too. If it was free to get rid of them, sure, I’d ditch the ads, but I’m certainly not going to pay Amazon extra money for a product I’ve already paid for so that I can say I have an unhindered screensaver.
I, for one, have never found the special offers to be intrusive. Sure, when you sit back and look at your device to make an aesthetic evaluation, the ads do take away from the clean-cut look of the display, but any other time they just get tuned out into the periphery. I honestly never notice them.
On the other hand, I do miss the authors screensaver on sleep mode, but I stopped caring about that within a few days. I think it’s the idea of ads that is more annoying than the ads themselves.
For some reason, putting ads on a tablet sounds more bothering to me. I would definitely pay to have tablet ads removed, but I might feel differently after I try them out. I really don’t see myself buying any non-Nexus tablet anytime soon though.
That Kindle Fire HD, it’s top of the Bestseller list in Electronics — and in Computers & Accessories, and in Tablets. It’s also in the Hot New Releases and Most Wished For lists in those categories, all at #1. Amazon does not have an e-reader category, otherwise it might top top the lists there as well.
This tablet must be satisfying its customers because it really works well. I assume it’s equally as good as rival tablets iPad 3 & 4, Nook HD and Google Nexus, with Blackberry Playbook not far behind.
Many of the Kindles with special offers also come without for just $15 more. Spending a few more bucks might be worth it.
Right it isn’t expensive, but $15 could get you an overpriced agency eBook instead of ad removal. 🙂
I find the ads very non-intrusive. I bypass them on the lock screen with no issues. I bought the 8.9 Kindle HD on a recent offer for $249 (#5) and am very happy with it. I’m a big book reader/audio book listener so the device is perfect for me. I bought it to replace my Kindle version 2 from 4 years ago.