Amazon sells 4 mn Kindle devices in December

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Amazon announced Thursday that it has sold over one million Kindle devices per week throughout December, making 2011 the best holiday shopping season ever for the e-reader family.

In a press release, the e-commerce giant said the Kindle family, including the Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch and Kindle, held the top three spots on its best seller list, reports Xinhua.

Kindle Fire, the tablet introduced 13 weeks ago, is the No.1 best-selling, most gifted and most wished-for product on Amazon.com.

Compared to the same period of last year, gifting of Kindle e-books was up 175 per cent between the Black Friday, or the day following Thanksgiving Day in the US, and Christmas Day, said the company.

"We are grateful to our customers worldwide for making this the best holiday ever for Kindle," said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO.

With a much affordable price and backed by Amazon's content and commerce assets, the Kindle Fire has been considered one of the most promising candidates to shake the dominance of Apple's iPad in the tablet market.

According to market research company Forrester, Amazon is expected to sell around five million Kindle Fire tablets this year.