Segway scooter among best sellers on Amazon.com

Mercury News ^

[rs79bm]

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Segway LLC's Human Transporter, the self-balancing electric scooter that has kept technophiles abuzz for the last two years, ranks among the best-selling items on Amazon.com Inc.'s Web site, the online retailer said Monday.

The machine will only be shipped beginning March 2003, but pre-orders already place the high-tech scooter in the top half percent of sales, Steve Frazier, vice president of electronics, tools and kitchen goods sales at Amazon told Reuters.

Amazon started taking orders for the Segway Human transporter last month, requiring a $495 deposit toward the Human Transporter's price of $4,950, and putting enthusiasts one step closer to riding the much-hyped invention once known only under its development name, ``Ginger.''

``It's selling better than many of our digital cameras,'' Frazier said. ``If this were ranked in our top items in electronics, it would be in the top five when it first went on sale, and still be among the top 200 out of about 68,000 total products.''

The brainchild of inventor Dean Kamen, the Segway carries one user standing on a small platform between two side-by-side wheels. Leaning slightly forward moves the scooter forward, leaning back reverses course and turns are made by twisting the handle.

Segway buyers will get a limited edition print to gaze at until their machine arrives, the device itself, a booklet and a training session on how to master it.

Keys to the Segway Human Transporter won't be handed out until new users take the training session, a safety precaution to ensure that they won't hurt themselves or others. Three color-coded keys let users activate the machine in ``beginner,'' ''intermediate'' or ``advanced'' mode.

Frazier declined to provide actual pre-sale numbers, but said that, as expected, sales were high among early technology buyers and people in urban areas.

The U.S. Postal Service is testing the machines for mail delivery, and more than 30 states have passed laws approving so-called personal mobility devices like the Human Transporter.

But other states have yet to ease restrictions on urban usage, and in San Francisco a debate is raging over whether the Human Transporter should be allowed on that city's streets.

[rs79bm]

Coming soon to a sidewalk near you!

[Libertarianize the GOP]

http://www.freerepublic.com/perl/bump-list

[martin_fierro]

Give it a fuel-injected v-twin, and you've got something.

<|:)~

[razorback-bert]

I saw one in use the other day, not impressed, it's a toy.

[Textide]

and in San Francisco a debate is raging over whether the Human Transporter should be allowed on that city's streets.

uggh...what now?!?

[Husker24]

Youve got to be kidding me.

[Husker24]

Do you have to remove your testicles before getting on?

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I saw one in use the other day, not impressed, it's a toy.

Does it make a better coat rack than my $600 Nordic Track Pro?

[lonestar]

Do you have to remove your testicles before getting on?

And lose your potential lawsuit?

[Jhoffa_]

It's a novelty.. Nothing more.

If you toss out the balancing act it's just another electric scooter, and those have been around for decades.

[spoiler2]

"Do you have to remove your testicles before getting on?"

No, but considering the stocky control post directly in front of the operator, you might lose them in an unplanned sidewalk traffic altercation!

At least there are rules for driving in the street. Good luck determining who's at fault on the sidewalk! Most pedestrians don't carry accident insurance, so both parties will probably have to sue Segway.....LOL

[Jhoffa_]

PS: Anybody want to build a Segway?

Looks like a neat Project

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

It sells for 5K. So measured in revenue per item, it's up near the top. Measured in number of items, I'll bet it's near the bottom. Probably the same ones that are bought now on Amazon for 5K will appear, used, on Ebay for distinctly less, in the not too distant future. LOL.

[DugwayDuke]

5K? That's just about what I paid today for a new Honda 450 CC ATV. I got 2WD/4WD drive too.

[Falcon4.0]

Yea Man!
Yuppies on Wheels!

[PatrioticAmerican]

I thought these things were supposed to be $2,500, but they are $4,900??? Wow.

[Revolting cat!]

Had one since 1985! Luv it! Bought it directly through Jim and Tammy Bakker's PTL Club! Praise Jesus!

[TexasBarak]

It's the kind of new thing that people make fun of, but I believe that it's going to spawn an entire new industry. The gyroscopes used in it will turn out to be useful in any number of ways- for instance, I have a vending route, and often have to move large numbers of heavy cases through confined areas. I feel sure that a device based on the Segway technology will come out in the next decade to make that kind of job easier (and cut down on industrial injuries). We'll be seeing these things and their derivatives all over the place before long.

[Jhoffa_]

Hey, now that would be productive..

Much more than the scooter itself, which I can't help but regard as just a novelty.

[templar]

...but I believe that it's going to spawn an entire new industry.

Of course it will. Litigation over sidewalk accidents.