Kindle helps Amazon beat forecasts

Retailer says ebook reader is best-selling product on UK site since launch, but warns investment will hit next quarter's resultsThe Kindle is the best-selling product on Amazon.co.uk, the company announced last night, as it revealed better-than-expected quarterly results showing products up by 16% to $231m (�147m) and revenues up 39% to $7.56bn.But lower forecasts for profits in the next quarter led its stock to fall in late trading, as it invests in new warehouses to deal with products."In the 12 weeks following the introduction of the new generation of Kindles, customers ordered more Kindle devices on Amazon.co.uk than any other product," the company said in a statement. Since the launch of the Amazon UK Kindle store at the start of August, the number of paid titles available has grown from 400,000 to 450,000 ? though it did not put any figures on the number of paid downloads, number of Kindles sold or revenue from their sales.However financial analysts at Caris & Co told Bloomberg that they estimate that the Kindle will generate $2.8bn in revenues this year, growing to $5.3bn in 2012. Sandeep Aggarwal, a San Francisco-based analyst for Caris, suggested in a note to investors that "Kindle device users will not only continue buying more ebooks but also subscriptions, accessories, hardware warranties, and eventually use Kindle's wireless and computing capabilities for other data and content", such as music and videos.Shares fell by up to 5.6% in late trading, because the forecast earnings for the next quarter fell short of analysts' estimates. Amazon is guiding that it will have sales of $12bn to $13.3bn, and operating income of $360 to $560m. Analysts had forecast significantly higher profits of about $620m.Amazon is investing in new warehouses as it deals with more large electronics items as well as clothes: it has built 10 so far this year and aims to finish three more by the end of 2010. It anticipates that these will be ready for operation at the same time that the US economic recovery is ready.The best-selling Kindle ebooks in the UK since the bookstore's launch have been Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, Tony Blair's A Journey and Rosamund Lupton's Sister.US sales represented 54% of the total, while cash flow grew 16% for the past 12 months, the company announced.Amazon.comKindleE-readersInternetE-commerceDigital mediaMedia businessCharles Arthurguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

internet internet world internet connections