(By Mani) Online retail giant Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) said sales of its Kindle e-readers and tablets are more than double versus the prior Black Friday holiday shopping period, although further details on unit volumes were not provided.
The Kindle family, as well as other digital products, continues to dominate the best-seller list at Amazon with nine of the top ten spots.
"We believe the strength of its e-reader and tablets sales augers well for the company as it furthers its presence in the digital media category, and could also help to drive subscribers of its Amazon Prime service," BMO Capital Markets analyst Edward Williams wrote in a note to clients.
The latest data from Amazon is significant as the company controls about 60 percent of the global e-reader market and approximately 10 percent of the global tablet market,
The sales performance also underscores the company's emergence as a leading digital media player, owing to the ability of Kindle owners to download and/or stream books, music, and video content purchased on Amazon to their devices.
The announcement comes as consumers continue to embrace online shopping as an alternative to traditional methods as it offers comfort of shopping from home or office.
For the holiday season-to-date, $16.4 billion has been spent online, marking a 16-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year, according to the latest data from comScore. Cyber Monday sales rose 17 percent to $1.465 billion in online spending, representing the heaviest online spending day in history and the second day this season (in addition to Black Friday) to surpass $1 billion in sales.
ChannelAdvisor says Amazon increased its sales by 37.7 percent during the key five shopping days ending on Cyber Monday. Specifically on Cyber Monday, Amazon sales were up 42 percent. According to IBM, Cyber Monday sales were up 30 percent versus 2011, suggesting that Amazon continues to gain share.
The largest online retailer, Amazon is betting they can drive users to its separate app store by offering a strong ecosystem and lower cost devices. It offers exclusive features like X-Ray for Movies, X-Ray for Textbooks, Immersion Reading, Whispersync for Voice, Whispersync for Games, and Kindle FreeTime.
Amazon has one of the world's best content ecosystem with more than 22 million movies, TV shows, songs, apps, games, books, audiobooks and magazines. Best cross-platform inter-operability, with Amazon apps available on the largest number of devices and platforms so customers can access content anytime, anywhere.
Chief Executive Jeff Bezos strategy is "We want to make money when people use our devices, not when they buy our devices."
Meanwhile, the company raised $3 billion in a debt offering, bringing its cash, equivalents, and short-term investments total to about $8 billion. The latest offering gives the company a substantial war chest to add incremental fulfillment centers as well invest in technology and content.
"We believe (proceeds) will be used to buy 11 buildings in Seattle, as well as invest in future growth drivers such as additional fulfillment centers and technology and content," Williams wrote.