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Amazon e-book sales beat print sales in U.S. for first time on Christmas Day

2009-12-28 16:27 BJT

BEIJING, Dec. 28 (Xinhuanet) -- U.S. customers bought more electronic books than hard-copy books on Amazon.com for the first time on Christmas Day, the online retail giant said in a statement Sunday.

The Amazon Kindle 2 electronic reader at a news conference in New York where the device was introduced by Amazon.com Inc Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, Feb. 9, 2009. (Xinhua/Reuters File Photo)
The Amazon Kindle 2 electronic reader at a 
news conference in New York where the device 
was introduced by Amazon.com Inc Chief 
Executive Officer Jeff Bezos, Feb. 9, 2009. 
(Xinhua/Reuters File Photo)

The statement said that Amazon Kindle, an e-book reader, "has become the most gifted item in Amazon's history."

"On Christmas Day, for the first time ever, customers purchased more Kindle books than physical books," Amazon said.

Amazon has not released figures for Kindle sales yet.

Forrester Research estimated in October that the Kindle had a nearly 60 percent share of the U.S. market.

Forrester also said that 3 million e-readers will be sold in the U.S. this year, up from a previous forecast of 2 million units, and forecast that e-reader sales will double to 6 million units next year.

The Kindle online store claimed to have 390,000 digitized books for sale.

Editor: Zheng Limin | Source: Xinhua