Amazon just reported their Quarter 4 earnings at the end of the week and it came out that they have already sold over 3 million Kindles, a year before they were suppose to. The total is about 500,000 more than analysts expected they would have moved by this time in the year. Whoa!

The day the Apple iPad was unveiled, some friends and I were engaged in a discussion about the validity of its market and use to consumers. I was trying to explain that it would instantly become a player in the e-reader market. I cited the success of the Kindle as evidence of the power of people who read(my friends confessed to never reading anything and thus did not understand) as buyers of these types of products.

One person asked me how much the Kindle cost. I like to read the old fashioned way and have never even considered reading a book electronically. Thus, I had no clue how much it cost and said $50! Upon research this weekend, it turns out Amazon lists it at $259 or $489 for the DX version. I would never have guessed they would be able to sell so many at that price point. But I find it to be even more evidence that the iPad will sell very, very well.

Reports are already surfacing of the first strikes in what is shaping up to be a full out book war with Amazon pulling all Macmillan books from their shelves. Apple and Amazon going at it is bound to be interesting. My guess is Amazon is in trouble. Barnes & Noble is the least of their worries at this point.

I fully expect sales of the Kindle to slow. In the meantime however, the evidence that they have sold over 3 million units is strong and extremely impressive. A bit of a buffer against the competition if you will.

Amazon sells just about everything, not just Kindles. As a whole they should be just fine. I do have to wonder how much this iPad will hurt their mystique though. People look to the Kindle as a sort of gauge of the power of the company and if they start to lose e-reader market share it could really frighten shareholders. Then again maybe it wouldn’t. Their dominance of the online marketplace will continue, and that may be all that matters.

The Cellular Guru took offense to people calling their picture of the Magnum prototype a fake and released this video to prove it does exist. I’m glad he likes to silence the critics because this is an awesome video. Let’s hope when the real iteration of this concept does drop it doesn’t contain that awful Surepress technology that scared CrackBerry addicts everywhere into revolting against the BlackBerry Storm.

“Sweat plus sacrifice equals success.” Charlie Finley

As I was getting ready for class this morning my Dad called me to let me know that it was being reported the Department of Justice was expected to allow the Live Nation merger with Ticketmaster. While I was expecting the merger to eventually be approved, the timing could not be better. The market is shaky right now and both companies are holding steady but it only reasons to expect that the prices of these stocks would be driven lower if the market continued its down trend. Even news of government clearance probably would not have helped the stocks weather last weeks storm. The fact that news broke today signaled to investors that Live Nation was worth buying and the price rose 15%.

Now, I bought Live Nation around $4.50 a share in the Spring so it has essentially doubled in that time. Today was a great opportunity for investors to sell into the merger and take strong profits. At the same time, Live Nation is still a very good company and I believe has the ability to go as high as $15 in the next 6 months.

Has the buying window for Live Nation been missed? Personally I would have probably bought as soon as the merger was approved in the UK about a month ago. Nonetheless, the company is still good and I believe in what they do and the potential their services have. The reality is that now Live Nation and Ticketmaster will form a company whose only real competition is AEG. In other words, the company SHOULD be more dominant than ever and in turn should be an even more attractive company to own.

Anytime there is a merger it is important to be cautious as an investor. Many mergers do not help the stock per se because the potential of the merger actually does more for the stock than when the deal is completed, the 15% increase in Live Nation today is a prime example of this notion. It is unlikely the stock will go up 15% in one day again anytime soon.

Over on my blog Lurk99Cents, my partner Bruce Ackerman just posted some thoughts on a subject that is frequently asked to us about starting a clothing company. Bruce decided that he wanted to expand the response he sent in his email reply for anybody interested in the topic to be able to access and read. So here is what he said to the young company in a nutshell with some expanded add-ins. I will be tackling issues on the same topics later on here on my own website.

This is reported to be an image of the upcoming BlackBerry Dakota. Talks about this phone began a while ago. It is unclear if this is a current picture of the prototype or not.

It basically looks like the BlackBerry Bold 9000 without a trackball or directional pad. I hope that this is the form factor because I like the size of my Bold and its cosmetic build. This phone is highly anticipated in the CrackBerry community. It is believed to be a full qwerty device that also features a touchscreen. The concept is not new but for Research in Motion it can be a game changing device. It has been a while since RIM came out with a new innovative device to excite the tech community. The Storm is at least 2 years old and was widely panned by Berry Addicts and mobile critics alike. Its Surepress technology is truly hit or miss with consumers.

The Dakota could signal RIM is willing to continue to push the creative boundaries with the BlackBerry line which could be exactly what the stock market wants to see. As of late the stock has been drowning in inactivity. While Apple is viewed as a great creator of new devices and mastering new products, RIM is viewed as faithful and reliable. Which serves well for profits, but not so well for investors who know that technology is driven by what’s new. RIM needs this device to do well. Hopefully it comes out sooner than later.

“It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”

“Citizenship in a Republic,”
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910-Theodore Roosevelt

I was bored in class earlier and turned to my trusty BlackBerry for entertainment. I read a host of stock and tech articles and one in particular I found interesting was on the power struggle between Google and Apple. The latest news in the battle of the superpower tech companies is that Apple is rumored to be in talks with Microsoft to replace Google as the default search engine on the iPhone.

This could hurt Google because they do make revenue off of ads placed along search results on mobile devices. It seems like the latest in a battle between the two creative giants. Google keeps trying to step on Apple’s toes and this is what is going to continue to happen to them if they do not back off. My friends who have iPhones have long been complaining about Google Voice and their inability to use it since Apple pulled all compatible apps from the App Store. Now it looks like they will be using Bing by default.

As a consumer of a BlackBerry, I could care less about these issues. But as a person who follows the stock market and at one point held stock in Apple I think these matters are important. Anybody who owns stock in one of these three companies should follow these battles and consider the effects they could hold for current and potential shareholders. Google has taken a bit of a beating lately and I think it is in part because of their attempts to play on Apple’s turf. Their Android devices, in particular the Nexus One have been disappoints that have failed to move the stock upward and in actuality have brought the stock down.

Google is still a very good stock but these games they are trying to play could continue to drop their stock price. If this happens they could actualy become an even more attractive buy as people may begin to see the stock as under-priced. In the meantime I’d keep an eye on Apple. I think the stock is going to $300.

Just in case you missed what Reggie Bush did to the Arizona Cardinals in the Divisional Playoffs Sunday here are his highlights. The move he makes at 30 seconds in has to be the best of the year. Nobody else in the league could make that cut. Reggie Bush is certainly not a bust. It is clear the Saints don’t use him enough. While this would seem like a major mistake on their part, all they do is win so it’s difficult to argue with their game plan. But make no mistake about the talent of Reggie Bush. Simply amazing.