Ebooks and Wii are recession proof

ANALYSTS and strokers of beards have been looking closely at this month's sales figures in a bid to see who will survive the recession.

The good news for Amazon is that the eBooks reader Kindle are recession proof as there never seems to be enough of them available to meet demand. Nintendo's Wii also seems to be recession proof.

What should be annoying for both Amazon and Nintendo is that neither of them had a clue how popular they would be this Christmas.

Wiis and Kindles were either bought early before the supplies ran out, or not at all. Amazon does not think it will have any Kindles available until February. Wii supplies will be restored a lot quicker.

All this seems to be a US phenomenon.

It was dead easy to find a Wii in Europe, in Rome they were selling briskly but there were plenty left on Christmas Eve. Nintendo has been hammering the marketing of the Wii in Italy and one might have expected them to sell out.

Ebooks however seemed to be off the shopping list of the Romans and there were none that we could find in the shops.

But looking at the figures, it would seem that this year's Christmas was all about cost. Anything above $1,000 was not selling at all and the cheaper the gadget the more it was being shifted.

Basically those outfits that will be ok during the recession will be those who flog their gear for the cheapest price. So Apple might find life a wii bit tricker as will the high end gaming computer makers. µ