Kindles in Stock?

Amazon promises to start stocking enough Kindles to quickly quench our thirst for the e-paper reader. The letter of apology, on Amazon’s front page yesterday, from Jeff Bezos was a quick note on their plans to, in the next few weeks, have enough kindles in stock to honor an ‘order-today ship-today’ declaration.

This all comes in the wake of order processing delays of up to a month and a half. Slow order processing apparently hasn’t curbed demand for the unique e-book, however; since their launch at the Union Square W hotel in November, there have constantly been more orders for Kindles, than Kindles coming though the doors at Amazon.

Under estimating demand can be more detrimental than overstocking, as Nintendo found out this Christmas, losing millions on their Wii shortage.

For me Amazon, with this letter, is also making sure that they get enough orders through advertising it on their homepage; so that if the easy availability of the Kindle affects the demand for it, they won’t be overstocked. After all, a product’s exclusivity can breed a higher demand, and if it becomes too commonplace the shininess fades a bit. Plus, you can’t get as much for them on eBay if everyone has one.