For Amzon the e-reader Kindle remains the best selling product as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says.

Although the Kindle is repeatedly referred to as sales pitch, sales numbers of the e-book reader are kept secret by the world’s largest online retailer. Rumors speak of up to 3.3 million units sold so far, but who really knows?

Amazon’s chief financial officer Tom Szuktak said on request, that the demand for the Kindle did not suffer from the launch of the iPad. And the demand is still very strong. He also stressed again that the Kindle and the iPad are two completely different types of devices that are not necessarily in competition.

Amazon currently has a dominating market share with the Kindle 2, but is certainly aware of the threat the new iPad imposes and so – despite earnings that exceeded Wall Street’s expectations, its predictions for the next quarter are more conservative.

The Kindle is important as a portal to Amazon’s core business: selling books.
In a next step Big-box retailer Target will begin selling Amazon’s Kindle ereader device. Target’s 102 stores in the south Florida market will offer the Kindle beginning April 25, with additional stores to follow later this year. The Kindle initially will retail for $259. Consumers are now enabled to see and touch the Kindle before making a purchase. That might actually boost Amazon’s Kindle sales and thus that of ebooks.

The Kindle enables consumers to wirelessly download books, magazines, newspapers and related content without extra costs for the delivery or synchronisation, as long as you are an US-citizen. Amazon’s Kindle Store at this moment contains more than 500,000 titles. But besides the Kindle itself Amazon has also introduced Kindle apps optimized for Apple’s iPhone and BlackBerry smartphones and of course PC and Mac.