Did Amazon.com's Kindle Already Peak? (AMZN, SNE)

There has been a lot of coverage of the Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) Kindle e-book reader.  But what happens when you hear there has been yet another price cut on the device?  Some have tried to use this device as one more hail as a the death to printed books (and newspapers).  And some look at this as just another major missed opportunity from Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE).

The Kindle is only about a year and a half old from the first launch and was constantly in limited supply or on a wait list at the launch.  Suddenly, the Kindle is being advertised at $299.00 by Amazon.com rather than the $359.00 previously.

There was recently a merger on the supplier-side of the equation.  The issue is that most reports have Amazon.com losing money on the device sales so that it can make it up on the sale of books and other content.

There is one area that always gets hurt during recessions, and that is before the consideration of digital media eating at print media.  Sales of new books drop.  Our bet is that with all the money heading to iPhones and the army of unemployed, this is an official advertisement that e-book sales might not be growing as fast as Jeff Bezos would like.

Jon C. Ogg