Is Amazon's Kindle The New iPod?

Amazon’s shares jumped by more than 9% following Citigroup analysts Mark Mahaney predicting its Kindle to become the “iPod of books”:

In a report to clients, analyst Mark Mahaney said Amazon could be on track to sell as many as 380,000 units of the Kindle this year. This would match the number of sales for the iPod digital music player in its first year on the market, leading the analyst to predict that the Kindle “is becoming the iPod of the book world.”

Mahaney predicted that the Kindle will likely top the lists of holiday “gadget gifts” this year. He warned that his projections do not account for a possible launch of an updated version of the device.

Personally, I want one! I just can’t wait for Amazon to release a Wifi version that’ll work world wide and will save me delivery costs and time when ordering my books.

I’m exactly the kind of person the Kindle appeals to – a techie who reads lots of books (mostly tech too) via Amazon.
I don’t think its a very large niche… at least, not as large as the iPod’s target market…

I find it ridiculous comparing Kindle success to the iPod simply because of one people fact: People don’t read anymore!

Apparently, I’m not the only one holding this opinion:

Today he had a wide range of observations on the industry, including the Amazon Kindle book reader, which he said would go nowhere largely because Americans have stopped reading.

“It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore,” he said. “Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”

By the way, the US is ranked 18 in literacy rate… Just a fact worth mentioning…