Amazon Still Can't Keep Kindles In Stock

Amazon's Kindle remains the surprise electronics hit of the holiday season, and it's still going strong, even now that February is here.

CEO Jeff Bezos, in statements during the company's most recent earnings call this week, noted: "Kindle is, in terms of demand, is outpacing our expectations, which is certainly something that we are very grateful for. It's also on the manufacturing side causing us to scramble. We’re working very hard to increase the number of units that we can build and supply per week, so that we can get back—our goal is to get into a situation as quickly as we can where when you order a Kindle, we ship it immediately. That's the standard we want to hold ourselves to and we are working very hard to get there. We are super-excited by the very strong demand."

Ars Technica notes that the Kindle is still listed as "temporarily out of stock," but that you should "please ORDER KINDLE NOW" so you'll get one as soon as they are available... but Amazon can't be any more accurate about when that might be. The best way to get one immediately is probably to head over to eBay. No longer selling for double price as they were in December, the eBay markup is now only about $70 or $80 over retail.

In related news, Amazon moved this week to purchase Audible, the venerable books-on-tape company and one of the oldest of dot-com enterprises still standing. Coupled with its bold moves into the digital music market, things are looking awfully positive for the once-beleaguered retailer, despite a sagging economy.