Although normally dead quiet on Kindle sales figures, Amazon has boasted today that they have “sold millions” of the latest generation e-readers during the first 73 days of this quarter, strong numbers considering the Christmas rush is still heating up.
In the past, Amazon had said little about sales figures, only claiming that the Kindle was the top selling item on the e-tailer’s site, and its “fastest selling” item, ever.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos also made the bold claim that e-book sales will pass paperback sales by summer 2011, and surpass hardcover and paperback sales by 2012.
The giant online retailer has always said that the hardware sales are not as important as the e-book sales, and Amazon even makes Kindle apps for iOS, BlackBerry, Android, Macs and PCs.
Despite being the clear market leader, increased competition from Apple, Barnes & Noble and now Google has analysts believing a once 70-percent share will fall to under 40 within 2 years.
The latest Kindle Wi-Fi sells for $140.
Result for: holiday season
Sony has sold 4.1 million Move motion control systems since launch in September.
The company says today that worldwide sales passed 4 million this week thanks to strong holiday demand.
“The milestone was reached in just two months since its release in September for North America, Europe/PAL territories and Asia, and 1 month since the release in October for Japan,” added Sony.
“The number not only shows clear success of the launch of the new motion sensing controller but also indicates positive momentum going in to the holiday season and to the year 2011.”
Move is supported by 25 games.
Over the holiday, Microsoft announced it had sold 2.5 million Kinect motion control systems since launch this month.
Result for: holiday season
Apple has announced today that iOS 4.2 is now available for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, adding a number of new features.
Perhaps more notably is the fact that iPad users will finally get multitasking.
“iOS 4.2 makes the iPad a completely new product, just in time for the holiday season,” added CEO Steve Jobs. “Once again, the iPad with iOS 4.2 will define the target that other tablets will aspire to, but very few, if any, will ever be able to hit.”
All iOS device owners will now have multitasking, Folders, Unified Inbox, Game Center, AirPlay and AirPrint.
AirPlay allows for wireless streaming of music, videos and photos from any iOS device to the Apple TV.
AirPrint lets you wirelessly print photos, email, web pages, and documents from your iPad to any AirPrint-enabled printer.
