Amazon Finishes 2011 Strong with 4 Million eReaders sold in December

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

Boston, MA: Amazon's great pricing strategy. compelling product mix and ready availability were definitely a factor in in its recent success. Roughly 1 million Kindle devices were sold each week in December for an estimated 4 million for the month. This is great news for publishers and a positive sign for eBook readers in general.

Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos said in a statement: “We are grateful to our customers worldwide for making this the best holiday ever for Kindle.” Bezos also highlighted the fact that the #1 and #4 best-selling Kindle books released in 2011 were both published independently by their authors using Kindle Direct Publishing.

The Kindle family, including the Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch and Kindle, held the top three spots on Amazon’s best seller list, respectively. The Kindle Fire, Amazon’s new tablet device, was the most gifted and wished for product on Amazon this season, and was the top selling product un the UK, France, Spain and Italy. The Kindle Fire was also the best selling product on Amazon’s mobile site.

What is most surprising is that the Kindle Fire is currently limited to US sales only, if this is any indication of the device's popularity if and when Amazon can make it available internationally then this may signify the most revolutionary surge of interest in the eBook reader market since the devices first started shipping.

I was tempted to pick up a Kindle Fire while visiting Boston for the holidays, indeed I found myself checking reader out in various places from Target, Best Buy and other outlets. What held me back was the knowledge that as a Canadian user, my experience would be limited to reading the books I already own and possibly web browsing since the vast selection of movies, TV shows and music for the Kindle Fire is restricted for US devices.

Gifting of Kindle books was up 175 percent between this Black Friday and Christmas Day compared to the same period in 2010 and Christmas Day was the biggest day ever for Kindle book downloads.

The Kindle Fire is proving to be the most successful holiday tablet so far, at least in the US.