Amazon had a monster Q3, 2009 and also announced that the Amazon Kindle is Amazon’s #1 bestselling product in both unit sales and revenue. It’s also the most wished for and the most gifted product on Amazon.
Kindle Amazon’s #1 Product
Mr. Bezos had this to say -
“Kindle has become the No.1 bestselling item by both unit sales and dollars — not just in our electronics store but across all product categories on Amazon.com,” CEO and founder Jeff Bezos said in a statement. “It’s also the most wished for and the most gifted.”
The first three highlights in the Press Release are all about the Kindle -
This week we started shipping Kindle with U.S. & International Wireless and lowered its price to $259 from $279 …
The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 360,000 books, including 101 of 112 New York Times Bestsellers, more than 7,000 blogs …
The Company announced “Kindle for PC,” the free application for reading Kindle books on the PC. Kindle for PC features Amazon’s Whispersync technology, which automatically saves and synchronizes customers’ bookmarks and last page read across devices, including the Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch, and PC.
Amazon had $5.45 billion in revenue and a 69% profits increase and the first three highlights in their earnings release are all Kindle related. Kindle Amazon is becoming a huge part of Amazon.
Amazon Profits rise 69%, Amazon thinks Holiday Sales will beat Expectations
- Net profits rose from $118 million in the year ago quarter to $199 million this quarter.
- Revenue rose 28% from the year ago quarter. The $5.45 billion revenues beat the analyst estimates of $5.03 billion.
- Amazon raised guidance for next quarter. Amazon expects revenue to be $8.125 billion to $9.125 billion.
Amazon stock is up 14.5% in After Hours trading. That’s 14.5% on a company that has a Price to Earnings ratio of 61.60 
.
Bloomberg has a good write-up if you want to look at the details.
How much of the 69% Profit is due to the Kindle?
Consider this -
- Media Sales last quarter only grew 1%. This quarter they grew 13%. That’s well above analyst estimates of 5% or so.
- In North America sales rose 23%.
- WalMart and eBay are agreeing that Christmas will be terrible. Amazon is upping its estimates. Some part of that is the Internet, and the remaining is Kindle and Kindle Store.
Check out the WSJ Digits Blog for a live-blogging of the Amazon earnings call.
Kindle Amazon related Amazon Earnings Call Notes
These are some of the Kindle related questions that came up –
Q: Open Kindle to content from other sources and other formats?
A: We don’t want to speculate on what we might or might not do.
Q: Threshold at which Amazon would start breaking out Kindle sales?
A: Certainly, as you get to certain sizes we would break it out. We have done it with countries.
Mark Mahaney – No Kindle Questions. How Strange given he always has Kindle Sales Estimates.
Q: Kindle International – Hurdles to getting Foreign Language Titles. When would that happen?
A: [Some vague mumbling answer, then the ] Longtime vision – every title ever printed in any language on the Kindle in 60 seconds.
Q: Impact of Video Games. What are the criteria to decide other devices you would sell given the success of the Kindle?
A: Within Media there was an increase in every category. Speculation on any other devices – wouldn’t want to speculate.
Q: Did lower price of the Kindle help you to hit The Tipping Point earlier?
A: [Ignored this question and answered only a small sub-question before this on Media Sales - it was a pretty loaded question]
The ‘Breaking out Kindle Sales once they are a Certain Size’ is a really interesting answer. It seems that once Kindle is generating as much revenue as the UK they’ll tell us what the sales are – that means no Kindle Amazon Sales numbers for 3 years.
Filed under: kindle, news Tagged: | kindle amazon, kindle amazon developments
