Amazon had some good news and some bad news in its latest financial report. The online retailer said that for the quarter that ended on December 31, its revenues came in at $17.4 billion, 35 percent higher compared the same period a year ago. However, the bad news came in the net income numbers. Amazon had just $177 million in profits for the quarter, down 58 percent from the same period a year ago.
Amazon continued to only give a vague idea of how many of its Kindle line of eReaders and tablets it has sold. In December the company said it sold "millions" of those devices during the holiday period. Today Amazon repeated that "millions" of Kindles were sold but never got more specific than that. Amazon did say that sales of its Kindles, including the Kindle Fire tablet, increased 177 percent during the nine week period that ended on December 31.
It"s clear that Amazon is selling a large number of Kindles. However, since it refuses to give investors and the general public more information than just the general "millions" sold, it"s hard to tell how the Kindle line, especially the Kindle Fire tablet, are selling compared to Apple"s iPad. Apple announced last week that it had sold over 15 million iPads during the last quarter.