If there's an object of the year, I'll vote for the Kindle.
On January 4, the Amazon e-book reader Kindle was out of stock across the board, causing netizens to speculate whether it would withdraw from the Chinese market and rush to the top of the hot search.
The cause is that netizens sent their own questions on the Internet on the evening of the 3rd: "Does anyone know Amazon's internal employees, please ask the Kindle's product line in the Chinese mainland, Taobao official store is closed, Jingdong is out of stock, is there an internal problem or quit the Chinese market?" ”
As soon as the news came out, it triggered the discussion of netizens. In response to the large-scale shortage of Jingdong flagship store, there are media to verify Jingdong customer service to inquire, the other party gave the answer is that the product is not off the shelves, but a temporary lack of chips, the specific arrival time is uncertain, and I have not heard of withdrawing from the Chinese market.
After a morning of fermentation, Amazon China responded: "We are committed to serving Chinese consumers." Consumers can purchase Kindle devices through third-party online and offline retailers. The response also pointed out that some models of the Kindle e-book reader are currently sold out in the Chinese market.
As we all know, as an e-reader designed and sold by Amazon Amazon, users can use Amazon Kindle to buy, download and read e-books, newspapers, magazines, blogs and other electronic media through the wireless network, after the Kindle entered the Chinese market on June 7, 2013, its biggest role was jokingly called by netizens - to cover the bubble noodles.
Needless to say, everyone can't help but sigh a little about using the Kindle as a bubble noodle cover to no less than using it to read books.
The Kindle, known as the "bubble noodle artifact", is not false, but for some people who like to use kindle and recharge their annual membership and use it frequently, this news is indeed a bit regrettable.
In the past two years, the momentum of the Kindle has been decreasing, and it seems that there is no wave of buying Kindle in previous years, and it may also be related to everyone's reading habits at present.
In the era of short video prevalence, everyone has become accustomed to picking up the mobile phone and starting to brush short videos, short and fast videos are tightly paced, fragmented time is almost completely occupied; people who really pursue feelings prefer paper books; in terms of electronic reading, domestic competitors are also rising, Kindle and other electronic ink readers, facing very large competition in China, China's domestic electronic reading consumer products are too rich, and the function and innovation ability are not weak. WeChat and qq reading occupy a large market share, and some high-brightness data enhances a lot of user stickiness. The Kindle, on the other hand, does not have the rich innovation ability of domestic e-reading apps, and has never ranked in the top ten in the Chinese e-reading market.
According to Amazon's financial performance data for the third quarter of 2021, the company's operating profit in the third quarter continued to show a downward trend compared with the previous two quarters, down 22% year-on-year.
If one day, Kindle does withdraw from the Chinese market, it may not seem so surprising.
After all, Kindle's biggest competitor in China is still a mobile phone.
The main role of kindle is to watch e-books, compared to mobile phones, its advantage is that the eye protection effect is stronger, and the viewing experience of the ink screen is close to that of paper books, which is more eye-friendly. But you need to buy an e-reader, and the memory is limited, the file cannot be exported... In the vast majority of cases, there are still many alternatives to the Kindle, such as the iPad, which is also a good hand at covering instant noodles!
It can only be said that the kindle is probably a "bubble cover" delayed by e-books. After all, where there are still extra pockets, another brick.