2011 is the Best Holiday Ever for Kindle

(NASDAQ: AMZN) - Amazon.com, Inc. today announced that 2011
was the best holiday ever for the Kindle family as customers
purchased millions of Kindle Fires and millions of Kindle
e-readers. Authors also continue to benefit from the success of
Kindle the #1 and #4 best-selling Kindle books released in
2011wereboth published independently by their authors
using Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP). We are grateful to our
customers worldwide for making this the best holiday ever for
Kindle, said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO. And in a huge
milestone for independent publishing, wed also like to congratulate
Darcie Chan, the author of The Mill River Recluse, and Chris
Culver, the author of The Abbey, for writing two of the
best-selling Kindle books of the year. More Kindle holiday facts:
Throughout December, customers purchased well over 1 million Kindle
devices per week. The new Kindle family held the top three spots on
the Amazon.com best seller charts #1: Kindle Fire, #2: Kindle
Touch, #3: Kindle. Kindle Fire is the #1 best-selling, most gifted,
and most wished for product across the millions of items available
on Amazon.com since its introduction 13 weeks ago. Kindle is also
the best-selling product on Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Amazon.fr,
Amazon.es and Amazon.it this holiday season. Gifting of Kindle
books was up 175 percent between this Black Friday and Christmas
Day compared to the same period in 2010. Christmas Day was the
biggest day ever for Kindle book downloads. Kindle Fire is the
best-selling product on Amazon.coms mobile website and across all
of Amazon.coms mobile applications. Additional Kindle Direct
Publishing successes include: Decembers #1 best-selling Kindle
Direct Publishing book Wife by Wednesday was also the #5 overall
best-selling Kindle book in December and has appeared on both the
USA Today and Wall Street Journal best seller lists. Author
Catherine Bybee was formerly an emergency room registered nurse,
and has now left her job to focus on writing full-time. In 2011,
KDP and CreateSpace author CJ Lyons reached #2 on the Amazon best
seller list, #2 on theNew York Times best seller list, and #4
on the USA Today best seller list. As a former pediatric ER doctor,
CJ has lived the life she writes about in her cutting edge suspense
novels, and she quit her job in medicine after 17 years to pursue
her dream of becoming a full-time novelist. Her latest work
includes Face to Face and Hot Water. Businesses Selling on Amazon
2011 was also a record-breaking holiday season for businesses that
sell on Amazon. Third-party sellers experienced record holiday
growth: the number of sellers who exceeded $5,000 in sales during
the holiday season increased 44 percent year-over-year. For the
year, businesses on Amazon sold hundreds of millions of units worth
billions of dollars worldwide. Scharf Industries, an office
supplies and electronics provider, increased its sales on Amazon by
over 500 percent this holiday season compared with last holiday
season. We greatly value the cooperation that we have developed
with Amazon, said AndrewD. Scharf, CMO of Scharf Industries.
They have provided us with the tools necessaryto grow our
business in arapid and efficient manner. Ken Reiss, the owner
of Reiss Innovations, LLC, started with one Amazon Webstore,
selling five to 10 mouse pads for the year. Six years later he has
a successful eCommerce business, selling through multiple Amazon
Webstores. Just this year alone, Reiss saw a 21 percent increase in
sales compared with the holiday season last year. He has also
increased the number of product listings by 50 percent over 2010
and recently extended his business to Canada. According to Reiss,
one of the most beneficial aspects of his relationship with Amazon
is that It allows me to scale in efficiency. I can devote my time
to building vendor relations and growing my inventory, rather than
worrying about logistical aspects, such as shipping products. Reiss
currently stores 90 percent of his inventory in Amazons warehouses,
up from 75 percent last year. Other seller successes include:
Amazons third-party sellers sold enough cameras for every fan at
the next 10 Super Bowls to snap their own shots of the winning
touchdown. Amazons third-party sellers sold enough toys in 2011 to
give a toy to every resident of Chicago. In fact, they sold as many
Lalaloopsy Dolls as there are lights on the Rockefeller Center
Christmas Tree in New York City. Debra Keyes, CEO of The Internet
Department Store, which sells costumes for both adults and
children,began utilizing Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) the
Amazon service that stores, packs and ships orders for third-party
sellers as soon as it launched. By January 2011, she had 1,300
products listed in FBA. That number has now grown to 7,800 products
by November 2011. During that same time period, the companys sales
increased by 34 percent. Holiday Fun Facts Shipping: The last
One-Day Prime order that was delivered in time for Christmas was
placed on Dec. 22 at 11:59 p.m. PST and shipped to Ballwin, Mo. The
item was The Cooks Herb Garden, a book by Jeff Cox and Marie-Pierre
Moine. The last Local Express Delivery order that was delivered in
time for Christmas went to Seattle, Wash. It was a Sony
Rechargeable Battery Pack that was ordered at 2:35 p.m. PST on
Christmas Eve and delivered at 6:15 p.m. PST that same evening.
Earlier this year, an Amazon customer called with an urgent request
for large volume of a single book, which they needed at the airport
the next day before they boarded a flight. The books were special
gifts and no other retailer had them available in such short
notice. Even though the cutoff time had passed for all traditional
delivery methods, Amazon was able to arrange a delivery to the
customers hotel just prior to their departure for the airport.
Customer Purchases (Amazon.com only; holiday timeframe-specific):
Amazon customers purchased enough copies of Walter Isaacsons Steve
Jobs book to create a stack taller than Mt. Everest. The cumulative
weight of the Bowflex 552 Adjustable Dumbbells purchased by Amazon
customers would outweigh more than 70 adult elephants. If you
unfolded and stacked each pair of jeans purchased by Amazon
customers this holiday, the height would be 2,500 times taller than
the Statue of Liberty. Amazon customers purchased enough sweaters
to outfit each of Santas reindeer during Christmas Eve deliveries
for the next 14,000 years. Amazon customers purchased enough copies
of Just Dance 3 to give 15 copies to each person who participated
in setting the world record for simultaneous dancing. Amazon
customers purchased enough HeatMax HotHands Handwarmers to give a
pair to each resident of Iceland. Amazon customers purchased enough
Rorys Story Cubes to give a cube to each person watching the New
Years Eve ball drop live at Times Square. Holiday Best Sellers
(Amazon.com only; based on units ordered): Electronics: Kindle
Fire; Kindle Touch; and Kindle Toys: Rorys Story Cubes; Qwirkle
Board Game; and Perplexus Maze Game Video Games: Just Dance
3;Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3; and Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Sports Outdoors: Zumba Fitness Total Body Transformation DVD Set;
Emergency Fire Starter; and Flexible Flyer Snowball Maker Home
Kitchen: Cuisinart 5-in-1 Griddler; Fred M-Cups Measuring
Matroyshkas; and Pure Komachi 2 Series Hollow-Ground Santoku Knife
Books: Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson; Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Cabin
Fever by Jeff Kinney; and 11/22/63 by Stephen King Kindle Books:
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins; Catching Fire by Suzanne
Collins; and The Litigators by John Grisham CD: Christmas by
Michael Bublé; 21 by Adele; and Duets II by Tony Bennett Amazon
MP3: 100 Classic Christmas Songs by Various Artists; Mylo Xyloto by
Coldplay; and A Very She Him Christmas by She Him DVD: Harry Potter
and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2; Bridesmaids; and The Help Amazon
Instant Video: Super 8; The Help; and Crazy, Stupid, Love Watches:
Timex 1440 Sports Digital Resin Strap Watch; LEGO Kids' Star Wars
Darth Vader Mini-Figure Alarm Clock; and XOXO Rhinestone Accent
Gold-Tone Bracelet Watch Jewelry: 10k White Gold Round Diamond Stud
Earrings; Sterling Silver Amethyst Butterfly Pendant; and White
Peacock and Pink Freshwater Cultured Pearl Button 3 Pair Stud
Earrings Set Clothing: Levis 501 Jean; Levis 505 Straight Fit Jean;
and Levis 550 Relaxed Fit Jean Shoes: UGG Australia Classic Tall
Boots; Crocs Classic Clog; and BEARPAW Emma Short Boot Beauty:
Wonderstruck by Taylor Swift Eau de Parfum Spray; Olay Pro-X
Advanced Cleansing System; and NARS Orgasm Blush Health Personal
Care: Philips Norelco SensoTouch Electric Shaver; Philips Norelco
Shaving System; and Philips Sonicare Essence Power Toothbrush Tools
Home Improvement: Streamlight Nano Light Miniature Keychain LED
Flashlight; Smith's PP1 Pocket Pal Multifunction Sharpener; and
Black Decker All-In-One SureGrip Laser Level Automotive: Battery
Tender Junior 12V Battery Charger; Wagan 12-Volt Heated Seat
Cushion; and Mystic Industries Reindeer Vehicle Costume Baby: Baby
Einstein Take Along Tunes; Vulli Sophie the Giraffe Teether; and
Cloud B Twilight Turtle Constellation Night Light
AmazonWireless:Motorola DROID RAZR 4G Android Phone (Verizon
Wireless);Samsung Galaxy S II Epic Touch 4G Android Phone
(Sprint); andSamsung Galaxy S II 4G Android Phone (ATT)
Amazon Appstore for Android: Angry Birds (Ad-Free); TETRIS; and
Pandora Internet Radio About Amazon.com Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:
AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened on the World
Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection.
Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company,
where customers can find and discover anything they might want to
buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest
possible prices. Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of
unique new, refurbished and used items in categories such as Books;
Movies, Music Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics Computers; Home
Garden; Toys, Kids Baby; Grocery; Apparel, Shoes Jewelry; Health
Beauty; Sports Outdoors; and Tools, Auto Industrial. Amazon Web
Services provides Amazon's developer customers with access to
in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end
technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually
any type of business. The new latest generation Kindle is the
lightest, most compact Kindle ever and features the same 6-inch,
most advanced electronic ink display that reads like real paper
even in bright sunlight. Kindle Touch is a new addition to the
Kindle family with an easy-to-use touch screen that makes it easier
than ever to turn pages, search, shop, and take notes - still with
all the benefits of the most advanced electronic ink display.
Kindle Touch 3G is the top of the line e-reader and offers the same
new design and features of Kindle Touch, with the unparalleled
added convenience of free 3G. Kindle Fire is the Kindle for movies,
TV shows, music, books, magazines, apps, games and web browsing
with all the content, free storage in the Amazon Cloud,
Whispersync, Amazon Silk (Amazon's new revolutionary
cloud-accelerated web browser), vibrant color touch screen, and
powerful dual-core processor. Amazon and its affiliates operate
websites, including www.amazon.com, www.amazon.co.uk,
www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca,
www.amazon.cn, www.amazon.it, and www.amazon.es. As used herein,
"Amazon.com," "we," "our" and similar terms include Amazon.com,
Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements This announcement contains
forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the
Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange
Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from
management's expectations. These forward-looking statements involve
risks and uncertainties that include, among others, risks related
to competition, management of growth, new products, services and
technologies, potential fluctuations in operating results,
international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims,
fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial
agreements, acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign
exchange rates, system interruption, inventory, government
regulation and taxation, payments and fraud. More information about
factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's financial
results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on
Form 10-K and subsequent filings.