Market looks sluggish for Amazon's Kindle in India
By siliconindia   |   Tuesday, 12 January 2010, 15:15 IST   |    5 Comments
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Market looks sluggish for Amazon's Kindle in India
Bangalore: Amazon could sell just 1000 units of Kindle in India since its launch in October 2009, and now it is being expected that India is unlikely to become a volume market for Amazon's Kindle reader. It's very low for country that has more than 500 million mobile subscribers at the end of November last year, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Arpan Gupta, an Analyst at IDC India said, "While communications is seen as a necessity in India, the ability to download books and read them from a device is not. The Indian market for the Kindle is not very big currently and is also expected to remain sluggish this year." Currently, the company is selling its Kindle DX with Global Wireless device, with a 9.7 inch display, in over 100 countries outside the U.S. The device, priced at $489, has been available for pre-order since Wednesday, with actual shipments scheduled for January 19. According to some analysts, estimates of sales of Kindle in India range from few hundred to about 1,000 units. In India, the price of the 6-inch Kindle and the DX works out to more than the list price. Irfana Tabassum, Director at Zion Consulting Services, a marketing consulting company in Bangalore said, "I considered buying the Kindle at one point, but I am still not comfortable with reading a book on a digital reader." Analysts believe that Kindle might have got success in India, if Amazon would have launched a promotion campaign, including in newspapers and television, highlighting the benefit of the product.

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