Amazon Revs Rise, But Still Quiet On Kindle Sales

Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) makes a particular point of reminding observers that its Kindle books are outpacing both paperback and hardcovers in its Q4 release. Since the beginning of the year, it says, it has sold 115 Kindle e-books for every 100 paperbacks and has sold three times as many Kindle books as hardcover books. But it’s still not saying how many Kindles it’s sold.

Just after Christmas, Amazon said that its third-generation Kindle had become the best-selling product in its 16-year history. And right before the holiday, Bloomberg reported that Amazon was on target to sell more than 8 million Kindles in 2010.

This past week, Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS), which is trying to quickly catch up to the Kindle’s perceived dominance of the e-reader marketer, touted its Nook Color, saying it sold more than 650,000 subs and single copies of some 120 magazines and newspapers through its NookNewsstand. But it too didn’t say how many actual devices were bought.

In its Q4 earnings this afternoon, Amazon did offer some general details about its largely successful quarter. Here are some of the highlights:

— North America segment sales reached $7.21 billion, up 45 percent year-over-year.

— International sales, which include Amazon’s U.K., German, Japanese, French, Chinese and Italian sites, were $5.74 billion for a gain of 26 percent from Q409.

— Worldwide Media revenues were up 12 percent to $5.23 billion.

— Sales for Worldwide Electronics & “other general merchandise” jumped 60 percent to $7.39 billion.

— Despite the sales growth, high expenses appeared to offset the gains, as total operating expenses rose 37 percent.

Looking at the current quarter, Amazon is especially confident. It expects sales to range between $9.1 billion and $9.9 billion, or to grow between 28 percent and 39 percent compared with the same period last year.

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