My own experience with the Kindle (I bought 20 books on it last year) and circumstantial evidence (Kindles being sold out half the time, other people who have actually used a Kindle loving it - although not all of it etc.) gives me reason to believe him.

Once you plunk down the $350, the itch to buy a $8 - $10 book that you just heard plugged by a friend you respect is simply too hard to resist. I have little doubt that Kindle owners are buying books more frequently and in large numbers. I think you still need a Kindle device for this iPhone app to work (not sure). Considering the fact that all the book lovers I know who hate the Kindle, love reading on their iPhones, if / when Amazon disconnects the two, this will accelerate.

Add to the fact that the you want to recoup the price you paid for the device in cheaper books. I bet that that would incentivize myself 200% towards buying more books.

That's a serious accusation. Do you have any stats to back it up?

I think you're being a bit dramatic.

All I know is based on what I've seen him say. He's extremely evasive about the actual numbers for the Kindle. He cherry picks a single number: "If you take the 230,000 titles where we have Kindle editions - Kindle unit sales are already more than 10 percent of all our sales."

I believe (based on my conversations with people about this) that many people hear that from Bezos and take away the idea that the Kindle is now 10 percent of all Amazon revenue or at least all book sales.

I believe he's phrasing this in an intentionally misleading way. I think he thinks that the Kindle isn't doing that well right now, but he believes in it and doesn't want to take the stock market hit in admitting that it's going to take a long time before the Kindle truly is a big success.

"For that to happen in 14 months is very surprising. It took us 14 years to build up our physical book business."

I'm just reading between the lines. I admit could be wrong.