Money Matters, Simplified.
Amazon's Kindle books record sales in December
by Neka Sehgal - December 20, 2009 - comments
Amazon is seeking to promote Kindle this holiday season by capitalizing on the delivery delays currently plaguing its chief electronic rivals Sony and Barnes & Noble both
Seattle, December 20 -- The Seattle-based retailer Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) proudly proclaimed that the sales for its Kindle electronic reader have touched an all-time monthly high in December despite the month being in its third week yet.
Although the official statement from the company did not disclose the actual sale figures, the retailer claims that Kindle was the most gifted item of Amazon customers, breaking sales records for the holiday shopping season.
With still around two weeks left until the end of the month, Amazon is optimistic that the amount of Kindle sales will continue to grow.
Promotion to push sales
Amazon is seeking to promote Kindle this holiday season by capitalizing on the delivery delays currently plaguing its chief electronic rivals Sony and Barnes & Noble both.
Celebrating the feat of notching up impressive sales, the retailer has announced free two day shipping on all Kindle orders. The offer is open to people placing orders anywhere within the United States on or before Dec. 22 in order to ensure safe delivery of the device before Christmas Eve.
Ian Freed, vice president, Amazon Kindle stated, "We've made it even easier and faster for gift-givers to order Kindle. Kindle is available today with FREE Two-day Shipping in time for Christmas.
"Kindle is the gift for readers. Now you don't have to guess which books to give someone -- with Kindle, you can give them the gift of choosing over 390,000 books and more than 100 top newspapers and magazines from around the world and begin reading them in less than 60 seconds."
Competition intensifies
In a recent press conference, Sony CEO Howard Stringer stated, “We obviously fell behind Amazon. But it’s a long war, a long race.”
Sony is trying to create partnerships with book publishers and other content providers. Coming close on the heels of Amazon's announcement, Sony Corp announced striking a deal with News Corp to make The Wall Street Journal and other publications available on its electronic reader.
Shares of Amazon closed down 1 percent at $126.91 on Thursday on the NASDAQ.
More on Kindle
Kindle is the revolutionary portable reader that wirelessly downloads books, magazines and newspapers to a crisp, high-resolution 6-inch electronic ink display that looks and reads like real paper.
Kindle utilizes the same 3G wireless technology as advanced cell phones which are not dependent on Wi-Fi.