Installing the update deregisters iOS Kindles, deleting libraries, bookmarks and other settings from them. But not permanently. Kindle purchases are backed up in the cloud, and can be downloaded once again by re-registering.

So a black eye for Amazon, but not a total disaster, though there’s plenty of outcry on Apple’s iTunes App Store over the debacle. “Thank you new update for erasing all of my saved settings,” one peeved user wrote. “Now I have to go through my hundreds of books to find the ones I haven’t read and change all of my screen settings.”

Amazon told AllThingsD that it’s aware of the issue and is working on a fix.

“We have identified an issue with the app update that may cause your app to become deregistered,” a company spokesperson told AllThingsD. “To register, enter your Amazon account email address and password and all your Amazon content will be available in the cloud. We have submitted an update fix for this issue and are working with Apple to release.”

That update must still go through Apple’s App Store review process, though. So, while a fix exists, Amazon must wait for the company’s approval to distribute it. Sources close to Apple say an expedited review is under way. Broken Kindles on iPhones and iPads aren’t good for its business, either.

The Seattle-based company has lost four of its top executives, representing 40 years of combined service. So far, only one has been replaced.

All of the changes have happened quietly, without any announcements from the company — and stranger yet, most of the departed continue to be listed on the company’s leadership page.

But the departures are easily trackable after reading the company’s annual report filed last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. When compared with the same filing a year earlier, it’s clear that Amazon’s top ranks are dwindling.

In 2011, the executive team had a dozen members. Now it has nine. The departures appear, though, to be part of a normal turnover process, rather than any meaningful restructuring.

Still, it’s hard to comprehend that Amazon’s management team has gotten smaller during the past year while the company’s overall headcount swelled to 88,400 in 2012 from 56,200 in 2011. Additionally, the e-commerce giant has entered several new businesses over the past decade.

The four executives who are gone are: Michelle Wilson, Amazon’s general counsel; Steven Kessel, SVP of Worldwide Digital Media; Marc Onetto, SVP of Worldwide Operations; and Sebastian J. Gunningham, SVP of Seller Services.

Two of the departures are easier to explain than the others.

For example, Wilson, who had been the company’s general counsel since 1999, stepped down in September to take parental leave. Her departure was documented by GeekWire in August, and Ty Rogers, a company spokesman, confirmed that she was replaced by David Zapolsky, who now holds three titles: VP, general counsel and secretary.

Another executive who can easily be accounted for is Kessel, who oversaw the company’s digital strategy, including books, music, video and the all-important Kindle. He has been on sabbatical now for about a year, as we reported last April.

“Steve continues to enjoy his well-deserved sabbatical, and we look forward to him returning later this year,” Rogers said.

Rogers also explained the departure of Onetto, though very briefly, saying that he had decided to retire after seven years on the job. Rogers declined to specify Onetto’s departure date, but according to the company’s annual report, he is no longer a top executive.

The biggest mystery of the four is the disappearance of Gunningham from the executive officer list (mostly because Rogers would offer only vague comments related to his standing at the company). Gunningham had served as the company’s SVP of Seller Services for five years. Update: Gunningham continues to hold the same title at Amazon, but is no longer a Section 16 officer, according to the company.

As I previously reported, I called what I believe to be Gunningham’s home number twice to clarify, but no one answered and his voicemail was full (Note to Gunningham: clean out your inbox!).

And, in response to multiple inquiries, Rogers repeated one answer: “As you may know, the 10-K only lists Section 16 officers.”

To explain, a Section 16 officer is essentially legal jargon for a member of the company’s executive team, so essentially Rogers is saying that Gunningham is simply that — no longer on the executive team.

Amazon, like other publicly held companies, is not required to disclose the departure of all executive team members, only the CEO, president, CFO, chief accounting officer and COO (although there are some exceptions). Therefore, the one way to notice if an executive has left is by checking the annual report year after year. In this case, that’s especially true since Amazon generally has no C-level execs. Rather, all of its officers hold the title of SVP.

Despite the departures, the Amazon team still has a bench of nine executives (including Wilson’s replacement), so it’s not like the company is running without an engine. And, of course, at the top of the pyramid continues to be founder and Chairman and CEO, Jeff Bezos.

But whatever those sales numbers were, they would have been higher last year if Amazon hadn’t sold out of its flagship e-reader, said Amazon’s CFO Tom Szkutak during the company’s earnings call today.

In response to an analyst’s question about why the company’s revenue was lighter than expected in Q4, Szkutak named a number of reasons.

For one, he said, sales of consumer electronics, including TVs, MP3s and digital cameras, fell short of expectations. But also, he said, it had to do with shortages of the Kindle Paperwhite.

“We are thrilled to have Paperwhite in our lineup — it’s the best e-reader out there, but we couldn’t keep up with demand,” he said. “We would have had more sales in Q4 if we could keep up with demand.”

“The team is working hard to have good stock going forward on that product,” he added.

Amazon is notorious for not commenting on the performance of its hardware business, and that policy didn’t change this quarter. But in Amazon’s earnings release, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos did open up a little bit about the company’s e-book business as a whole.

“We’re now seeing the transition we’ve been expecting,” he said. “After five years, eBooks is a multi-billion dollar category for us and growing fast — up approximately 70 percent last year. In contrast, our physical book sales experienced the lowest December growth rate in our 17 years as a book seller, up just 5 percent. We’re excited and very grateful to our customers for their response to Kindle and our ever expanding ecosystem and selection.”

Some critics will not consider that enough information, given the size of the business.

After all, without knowing unit sales, it makes it extremely difficult for analysts to compare Amazon to other tablet makers, namely Apple. But in some respects, e-book sales is a better measurement to track Amazon’s performance. That’s because it makes little to no profit on the hardware, and instead emphasizes the lifetime value of the customer.

By emphasizing content sales — and not unit sales — Amazon is under less pressure to get customers to continually upgrade their devices to generate more revenue. Put another way, a three-year-old Kindle can generate as much revenue as a brand new one. If Amazon disclosed device sales, analysts and investors would be closely tracking that metric for signs of growth.

Amazon also deploys this loss-leader strategy for Amazon Prime, which gives members free two-day shipping as well as access to free streaming video and free e-books. On the call, Szkutak cautioned that it’s still early, but that those freebies are beginning to drive additional revenue.

“The percentage of Prime customers who are watching free content has gone up dramatically,” he said, “And, they are purchasing paid content. They are watching for free, but they are also paying for new content.”

I have owned every iphone released (and every ipad and galaxy and kindle). It is far better to actually use a product day in and day out so before CES I started using it and will use it for a month or so. Just prior I was using my 920. In Office I spent a long time using SmartSuite or Google Docs for the same reasons.

– Steven Sinofsky, commenting on a post by Bijan Sabet, entitled “Why Don’t Microsoft Alumni Use Their Own Products?”

Image via mtkang

And while many retailers, especially smaller privately held companies, were bullish on the number of transactions coming from mobile, other larger companies — especially Amazon — have remained mum on the subject.

But in a report today, Citi Analyst Neil Doshi estimates that Amazon is generating $3 billion to $5 billion in annual sales from mobile devices.

If this is the case, the question that has to be answered is, is this significant?

It’s really not.

Take a look at the facts. Based on Amazon’s 2012 revenue forecast, the company’s net sales will total somewhere around $60 billion in 2012, which means that mobile sales will equate to 5 percent to 8 percent of total dollars spent on Amazon.

When asked about his estimate, Doshi called it “conservative,” noting that in 2012, Amazon’s percentage of mobile transactions could be as high as 10 percent. The estimate also takes into account only purchases made on Amazon.com from mobile, and not digital downloads from Kindle devices, for example.

Granted, moving the needle at a company the size of Amazon is extremely difficult, but that’s still comparatively low when looking at others in the space.

Take a look at eBay. It’s anticipating mobile sales to hit $10 billion in 2012, which is at least twice as much as Doshi’s conservative estimate for Amazon. That could equate to nearly 16 percent of eBay’s 2012 revenue — which is double what it was in 2011, and double Amazon’s estimated percentage in 2012.

Doshi provided other comparison points for some of the leading online players: About 15 percent to 25 percent of Google’s search queries are coming from mobile, as are 15 percent to 20 percent of page views on LinkedIn and 40 percent of Walgreens’ online prescription refills.

Amazon is trailing here, but given the Seattle company’s huge investment in mobile, that’s hard to believe.

If Doshi’s estimate took into account digital downloads, the numbers would be a lot higher. Take e-books, for example. It would be logical if a majority of the e-books being purchased are occurring on Amazon’s own Kindle e-readers and tablets.

Additionally, it has invested heavily in building its own app store on Android devices, which sells digital content, such as games. Amazon also has a dozen or more mobile applications available across several platforms, including iOS, Android and its own Kindle devices, which helps consumers shop its homepage in a streamlined fashion.

During the 2011 Christmas season, Amazon launched a mobile promotion that encouraged consumers to compare prices in a retailer’s store by using its bar-code scanning technology on its phone app. Anyone who used the app to scan a bar code received up to $5 off on any purchases made. The purpose was to increase usage of its mobile apps, but it seriously backfired when local retailers accused Amazon of encouraging “showrooming,” in which consumers test products out in the store, but end up buying them online.

Since the PR blunder, Amazon has been especially quiet about its mobile successes, so it’s really hard to tell if the 5 percent to 8 percent range is even close to accurate.

But beyond just knowing the percentage of revenue coming from mobile, it’s equally difficult to define success. As Doshi points out, it’s hard to know whether mobile results in incremental revenue, or if it is cannibalizing purchases that would have otherwise occurred online.

He writes:

[T]here has been a relatively healthy debate around the extent of Mobile Internet usage that’s really incremental, and accordingly the extent of monetization opportunities that are completely incremental (and do not cannibalize traditional desktop / PC Internet usage).

Doshi adds that people tend to use phones while they are out during the day and tablet usage spikes from 7 to 10 pm when they are on the couch — in other words, mobile usage is occurring when they aren’t in front of a PC and therefore could be incremental.

In all, Doshi believes Amazon and eBay are “likely to benefit from increased sales activity from mobile devices.”

That’s obvious. After all, purchases made on the PC and mobile monetize the same. However, that’s not the case for content companies, which find it much harder to generate revenue from advertising on the smaller screens.

That’s according to a new report from the Pew Research Center, which surveyed over 2,000 Americans age 16 and up during a month-long period just before the holidays.

The number of consumers who read e-books is up seven percent to nearly a quarter of those surveyed, compared with data from the same time period a year ago. This coincided with a decline in those who say they still read dead-tree books, from 72 percent to 67 percent over a 12-month period.

The Pew report focuses on how this impacts libraries and e-book lending. But what’s more interesting is the data surrounding the types of devices consumers are e-reading on.

A quarter of those surveyed own tablets, like the iPad or Kindle Fire, compared with 10 percent of consumers who said the same a year ago. Meanwhile, just 19 percent said they owned a Kindle or Nook, compared with 10 percent last year.

So, tablet ownership shows a slightly greater increase than e-reader ownership — more evidence that e-readers are slowly losing momentum as tablets gain share. As reported recently by the New York Times Bits blog, IHS iSuppli estimates shipments of e-book readers will suffer a 36 percent drop this year, falling to 14.9 million units.

And a report from eMarketer suggests “2011 might prove to have been the high-water mark for ereaders. IHS iSuppli predicted continued declines, with worldwide shipments falling to just 7.1 million units by 2016.”

That’s according to new data from research firm Parks Associates, which recently surveyed 2,500 adults in the U.S. to measure consumer tech purchasing intent for the holidays.

Fifty-three percent of consumers planning to purchase a smartphone this season intend to buy an iPhone, Parks says — up from the 33 percent who said the same thing in the third quarter of this year, and up from 24 percent a year ago.

And when it comes to tablets, most of those surveyed said they’d prefer an iPad. Following the iPad at 44 percent was Kindle Fire, with 24 percent of consumers expressing interest in Amazon’s touchscreen tablet.

Twenty-one percent of those surveyed said they’d go with the Microsoft surface tablet — down from the 45 percent who just a few months ago said they wanted the Surface — and the Google Nexus tablet came in last at 12 percent.

Lastly, Parks writes, “When presented with the iPad Mini as a tablet alternative, many of those planning on purchasing other tablet brands opt for the iPad Mini.” So did many of those planning on buying an iPad: 40 percent, in fact, said they would opt for an iPad mini instead.

But it’s worth noting a few things about this report, the first being that the smartphone-lust portion of the survey only covers entire brands, not specific models. So Parks isn’t offering a breakdown of how many consumers say they’re enticed by the new iPhone 5 — and what percentage want the much cheaper, earlier-generation models of iPhone available now.

And the tablet data above is based on consumer sentiment when participants were presented with just those four options. Responses varied slightly when all tablet brands and models were considered.

Lastly, iPad cannibalization isn’t a new theory, nor is it a proven one yet. Prior to the mini’s launch, AllThingsD’s John Paczkowski reported on analysts’ predictions that the iPad mini would cut into sales of the regular ol’ iPad, but more recent data suggested the mini wasn’t immediately impacting sales as much as some thought it would.

But there are signs that the freeze between the two companies is starting to thaw. Over the past couple of weeks, Amazon’s Kindle devices have started appearing in search results on Google Shopping. While that may not sound very significant, it means that Amazon realized it could no longer afford to ignore the search engine — even if it means it has to pay.

An Amazon spokesman declined to comment on the Kindle’s sudden appearance in Google Shopping, and a Google spokesperson also had nothing to say.

When Google first announced it was rolling out Google Shopping earlier this year, it promised a better shopping experience on Google. While the program has been fairly under the radar, it represents a huge shift for the search engine, which used to accept product feeds for free. For the most part, the change has gone smoothly, with many retailers reporting positive results and few complaints by consumers (the one exception is Microsoft’s Bing, which has plenty to say).

However, early on, Google came under fire for not delivering the best experience, as promised. Most notably, since Amazon was refusing to participate, it eliminated many products from results, including the Kindle. For example, SearchEngineLand reported in early November that Google’s results were less than stellar when searching for the Kindle Fire. While several online merchants and brick-and-mortar stores showed up as selling the device, shoppers could not see Amazon as an option. It would be like buying an iPad from another retailer without first checking prices on Apple.com.

But starting sometime a couple of weeks ago, that was no longer the case. Today, Amazon is showing up in the results for the Kindle on Google Shopping. Sources say that Amazon is paying to participate, rather than this being a move by Google to include the Kindle for the sake of having more complete listings. Amazon is not otherwise participating on Google Shopping, although some of its subsidiaries are, such as Zappos and Diapers.com.

For most shoppers, the Google-Amazon rivalry is easy to miss — one company is a search engine and the other is an e-commerce site. But this holiday season, it’s in full swing, with most consumers starting their online shopping experience at one of the two sites. According to Forrester, 30 percent of online shoppers went directly to Amazon, compared with 13 percent of shoppers who went to Google first. This year, Google is seeing a huge lift after revamping its shopping experience. In addition to starting to charge retailers for inclusion, it created a more visual experience, including product images. It also allows consumers to easily conduct price comparisons across numerous sites.

Google’s efforts are already paying off, according to Eric Best, the CEO of Mercent, which provides retailers with tools to help them compete on Amazon and Google. He said across Mercent’s customer base, which includes 1-800-Flowers, REI and Office Depot, transactions this holiday season are up 60 percent year over year on Google and 37 percent on Amazon.

“Google is growing so much faster in its conversion to paid than we were expecting or we would have hoped,” he said. “I think Google is working hard to recover some ground against Amazon with these moves. After all, how defensible is search if you don’t own commerce?”

The Seattle-based Web giant on Monday tapped capital markets with its first bond offering in nearly 15 years, raising $3 billion for what it said were “general corporate purposes.” Among other things, the company is set to complete the purchase of a headquarters complex for $1.16 billion by year-end.

The bond offering was Amazon’s first since May 1998, when the company was “junk” rated and offered debt at discounted rates. Amazon appears to be taking advantage of low interest rates to build its cash reserves, even as its Web site, Kindle and Web-services business continue to bring in more revenue.

Read the rest of this post on the original site »

With all the hyped hullabaloo around just how mobile-icious we are this holiday season — yes, it’s up, but it is also a retailer-cooked trend that reporters grab onto amid the news drought of the Thanksgiving weekend — one of the many statistics spewed out by a variety of sources was rather interesting.

According to IBM, in a report titled “The iPad Factor”:

“The [Apple] iPad generated more traffic than any other tablet or smartphone, reaching nearly 10 percent of online shopping. This was followed by iPhone at 8.7 percent and [Google] Android 5.5 percent. The iPad dominated tablet traffic at 88.3 percent followed by the Barnes & Noble Nook at 3.1 percent, Amazon Kindle at 2.4 percent and the Samsung Galaxy at 1.8 percent.”

And, over at eBay and its PayPal unit — which spewed out all kinds of data on mobile transactions that showed volume was between two and three times greater, mostly on Apple devices — the company noted that one of its bestselling items on Black Friday was the iPad 2, selling 250 per hour from 12 am to 8 am PT.

That tracks on an earlier survey by Nielsen with 48 percent of U.S. children 6 to 12 years old asking for the iPad, followed by iPod touch (36 percent), iPad mini (36 percent) and iPhone (33 percent).

Presumably, which will be used to order more.

Here’s a lovely IBM chart explaining it all:

IBM Holiday Benchmark Infographic BF2012

Bon appetit!

1. First, demonstrate that you know the difference between Microsoft’s Windows 8 and Windows 8 RT. As Walt Mossberg points out here, Windows 8 comes in two versions — one for standard PCs, and one called RT, for tablets. Windows RT will only run on devices running ARM processors from companies like Nvidia and Qualcomm. Windows 8 will run on devices powered by Intel chips.

On Intel-based PCs, you can run both old Windows apps and new tablet-style apps. On the tablets, or RT devices, you can’t run traditional Windows apps, except for a new version of Office (which doesn’t include Outlook). Confused yet? It’s wise to offer up this gem before you’ve had a few Thanksgiving cocktails.

2. The bad news: BlackBerry maker RIM is missing the key holiday season with its late launch of BlackBerry 10, which is expected in the first couple months of next year. The good news? Some wireless carriers seem to be giving early positive feedback on BB10. While discussing BlackBerry, argue for/against tactile keyboards on smartphones.

3. “HP is in a jam.” Say this with authority, then point toward Tuesday’s earnings call and the developing Autonomy fraud story. Note: Don’t pretend to be too much of an authority on HP or you will, at some point, be asked to fix a relative’s printer.

4. Zynga is in a jam, too, except even worse, if possible. Key executives are leaving, and the company cut 5 percent of its workforce in October. Also, the company needs a new hit game. (Admit it, you got bored with Draw Something pretty quickly.) Pro tip: Turn the sound down on your phone so the Words With Friends chime doesn’t give you away. If that fails, move on to Groupon’s failings.

5. “Why would I go to stores on Black Friday? I do all of my shopping online.” This might sound pretty familiar by now, so take it a step further: Specify that you do all of your shopping on mobile. Argue that “favoriting” things on Pinterest on your iPad late at night counts as mobile shopping.

6. A favorite topic of discussion: Should you buy your mom/brother/child/significant other an iPad mini? What about Amazon’s new Kindle Fire or the Google Nexus tablet? Read Walt’s review of the iPad mini; this chart will help you figure out some of the specs of the others. And for a great retrospective of Apple devices throughout the years, check out this skit from Jimmy Kimmel.

7. There’s a new and improved Jawbone Up — the techie wristband that suffered technical problems its first time out of the gate. Launch a full-blown debate about which is better: Up or the FuelBand from Nike, a brand that’s more likely to resonate with most people. Talk about how motivating activity trackers are, right when you’re on your third piece of pumpkin pie.

8. YouTube is no longer just about cat videos. It’s true! Just read this. Full disclaimer: Many people sitting around you still might not believe this. Not my chair, not my problem.

9. The launch of the new Nintendo Wii U, which has been in development for a few years, hasn’t gone very smoothly. And The Wall Street Journal’s Katherine Boehret said in her review of the new gaming device that “despite the Wii U’s refreshing features, its sluggish behavior makes it a product I can’t fully recommend.” For fun, quiz others around the table to see who remembers the old Contra code (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start).

10. Take photos of the turkey with your phone, especially if you’ve purchased the new iPhone 5/Samsung Galaxy S III/Nokia Lumia 920 and need a reason to casually pull it out of your pocket. Blast-share the best pic with your social networks using a new app that you believe is the new Instagram-meets-Socialcam-meets-Twitter.

Bonus: Get ahead of the times by dropping some knowledge about the government investigating Google for anticompetitive behavior around how its search engine ranks its own sites above competitors’ sites. News on that is likely to drop right after the holiday. But be careful: Talking antitrust could turn into talking politics, and in some families that’s a recipe for disaster.

Double bonus: Free food! Free smartphones! Free air! Yes, Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s new CEO, is a magical unicorn executive who will make you quit your Gmail and go back to Yahoo Mail. Keep repeating to your clan until it’s true. (Warning: This might actually take a few quarters.)

Now put your phone down and actually enjoy the holiday.

Those days are over, and the business has shifted. Now it’s Qualcomm and Samsung that supply the main processing engine in most of the world’s smartphones not made by Apple. And Apple designs its own chips.

Despite having landed its chips in devices such as the Motorola Droid and Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet, TI has now admitted something of defeat.

The company just announced that it will re-focus its OMAP chip business on a wider set of “embedded markets” — chip industry code for things that aren’t personal computers or in this case wireless phones. The move, it says, offers greater business potential over the long term. Design cycles for the smartphone business are pretty harsh and costly — and incredibly competitive.

As part of the move, it says it will cut nearly 1,700 jobs, amounting to about 5 percent of its work force, which it says will reduce annual costs by $450 million by the end of next year.

TI execs hinted at the change two months ago, saying they planned to shift the company’s R&D resources toward developing chips for the automotive, industrial and other non-consumer markets.

As part of the change, TI says it expects to take a $325 million charge that it will record this quarter.

Here’s TI’s original announcement:

TI to reduce costs in Wireless business; OMAP™ processors and wireless connectivity solutions will focus on embedded markets

DALLAS, Nov. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Consistent with previously stated strategic plans, Texas Instruments (TI) (TXN) announced today it will reduce costs and focus investments in its Wireless business on embedded markets with greater potential for sustainable growth. Cost reductions include the elimination of about 1,700 jobs worldwide.

TI previously outlined intentions to focus its OMAP processors and wireless connectivity solutions on a broader set of embedded applications with long life cycles, instead of its historical focus on the mobile market where large customers are increasingly developing their own custom chips. These changes require fewer resources and less investment.

“We have a great opportunity to reshape our OMAP processor and wireless connectivity product lines to concentrate on embedded markets. Momentum is already building with new embedded applications and a broad set of customers, and we are accelerating our efforts in these areas,” said Greg Delagi, senior vice president of Embedded Processing. “These job reductions are something we do with a heavy heart because they impact people we care deeply about. We will work closely with all employees affected by these changes to provide a range of assistance related to compensation, benefits and job search.”

As a result of these actions, the company expects annualized savings of about $450 million by the end of 2013. Total charges will be about $325 million, most of which will be accounted for in the current quarter. TI’s fourth-quarter outlook, published on October 22, did not comprehend these restructuring charges.