On Friday, Oprah Winfrey announced on her talk show that her “Favorite New Gadget” is the Amazon Kindle. Oprah declared, “It is absolutely my new favorite thing in the world”. Oprah went on to describe the Kindle as “life-changing for me” and “the wave of the future”. Oprah gave each member of her audience their own Kindle and provided viewers with a promotional discount code to save money on their purchase. Oprah’s endorsement could be just what Amazon needs to boost sales in the upcoming holiday season. To date, Amazon has not released any information regarding Kindle sales and according to the market research firm, Codex Group, it could be because there is a difference between the hype the Kindle has created and the amount of actual purchases. Oprah has proved many times in the past that she can significantly influence consumer product sales through her annual “Favorite Things” show which has brought overnight success to many small companies and through her famous book club which has put many authors on The New York Times best-seller list.
On Friday’s show, Oprah also spoke about her desire to use the Kindle for textbooks at the school she opened in South Africa as well as her prediction for the future.
“I was telling my head of school in South Africa about it because my little girls are 12 and 13 years old and they have 60 pounds of books on their back. I’m trying to figure out a way to get all of their textbooks downloaded to the Kindle so they do not have to carry their textbooks around.” Oprah went on to say, “I do believe this is the future for academia, period.”
We look forward to finding out more about Oprah’s influence on the Kindle sales.
