Posted on Mon, Dec. 23, 2002 story:PUB_DESC

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.

-- Anonymous, December 24, 2002