Amazon Kindles Hit the 3 Million Mark

The iPad may be grabbing all the headlines this week, but according to some accounts, the Kindle is still pulling in all the sales. TechCrunch is reporting that Amazon has officially passed the 3 million mark in terms of Kindles sold. The blog cites a source close to Amazon who provided the figure. The company made the milestone last month amidst holiday traffic.

The figure comes as a surprise to the industry since analysts were expecting Amazon to hit 2.5 million Kindles sold sometime around December…of 2010. So either this new number is off or Amazon enjoyed a very successful 2009. The company previously announced that it enjoyed record Kindle sales in November.

Either way, strong Kindle sales are good news for Amazon who will be facing stiffened competition this year. The iPad is expected to cut into sales, especially after Apple revealed a starting price of $499–about half of what many in the industry were expecting it to be. Now that the holiday rush is over, Barnes and Noble’s Nook should also be taking a chunk of the market. If so, the Amazon Kindle had a strong run as the dominating force in the e-reader market. [via TechCrunch]