Amazon Declares The Kindle Its Most-Gifted Item Ever

By Geoff Duncan December 28, 2009

Kindle DX

Amazon has been notoriously close-lipped about how many of its Kindle ereader devices it has sold, but with endorsements from mega-celebrities like Oprah and periodic inabilities to keep the units in stock, the Kindle is generally accepted as market leader amongst ereader devices. Now, Amazon still isn’t saying how many Kindles it has sold, but is proudly trumpeting the Kindle as the most-gifted item in Amazon’s history—and that’s saying something, considering the vast number of products Amazon varries and how well-established the company is as an etailing leader.

“We are grateful to our customers,” said Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos, in a statement. “On behalf of Amazon.com employees around the world, we wish everyone happy holidays and happy reading!”

According to Amazon, on Christmas Day itself—which, let’s face it, isn’t known for consumers beating down the retailers’ doors—customers purchased more Kindle books from Amazon than physical books.

Amazon also touted its holiday retailing successes with a number of impressive claims, none of which actually translate into revenue numbers, units shipped, or comparisons to previous holiday retail seasons. But they still offer some amusements: Amazon claims they sold enough camcorders over the holiday season to supply YouTube with 50 years of continuous video, sold enough iPod touches to supply 442 years of continuous music, and claims to have delivered a Kindle ordered at 1:43 on December 24 to a Seattle customer using Local Express Delivery by 4:57 PM—a total delivery time of just over three hours. Amazon also says it shipped over 99 percent of its holiday orders on time to meet deadlines.

Amazon also released some information about its customers’ ordering habits. Top electronics items were the Kindle (of course), 8GB iPod touch, and the garmin nuvi 260W GPS. Top video game sales were the Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board, New Super Mario Bros., and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Oh, and Amazons top phone sales? The unlocked Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and AT&T’s BlackBerry Bold 9700.

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Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

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