Amazon has said its Kindle e-reader is a successful product, but continues to frustrate Wall Street analysts by never disclosing public sales figures.
Over the past six months, the popular online retailer has issued numerous press releases mentioning high interest in the device, record sales, and optimistic views for the future.
A day after Christmas, Amazon again issued a bold statement without providing sales figures -- the Kindle was the best selling gift in the site's history, while e-books outsold real books during the holiday shopping season.
If Amazon is able to continually tell investors and the media that Kindle sales are reportedly record breaking without providing concrete figures, why would the company change that method now? The company's share price is reportedly at an extremely high level, which may force Amazon to finally begin disclosing specific sales figures.
"As long as Amazon continues to have the right margins and the right profit numbers at the end of every quarter, they can probably get away with that," Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey noted to Reuters. "You may suffer a 10 to 15 to 20 percent correction because the uncertainty factor would be so high. It ensures that if there is bad news, people imagine the worst."
I always thought it was only a matter of time before Amazon would have to reconsider its options, as analysts are currently predicting sales figures with very few clues. What makes it worse is the sheer number of press releases related to the Kindle and e-book sales, as Amazon cranks out the announcements.
Analyst numbers indicate the Kindle has 55 percent of the e-reader market, with around 2.5 million Kindles sold since its launch in 2007. The company faces pressure from Sony, Barnes & Noble, and other manufacturers entering the e-reader market, but so far they've managed to hold on to the market majority.
