At the Kindle’s launch, Amazon’s Kindle Store offered about 88,000 digital books in the U.S. catalog.
Amazon introduced the first Kindle in November 2007, presenting it as an electronic reading device connected to a large online bookstore. Its wireless Whispernet service allowed users to buy and download books without connecting the device to a computer. The store’s opening catalog was a major part of the product’s appeal because it promised instant access to mainstream titles.
The figure is often described as “more than 88,000” digital titles, so quiz references commonly round it to 88,000. That number referred to available digital titles in the U.S. Kindle Store, not every book Amazon sold in print and not the total number of books ever published.
The catalog expanded quickly: it surpassed 275,000 titles by late 2008 and exceeded 765,000 by August 2011. Later growth included self-published books, international catalogs, audiobooks, magazines, and other digital content, making the original launch figure look small by comparison.