Kindle Sales Soar but Amazon Mum on Actual Numbers - fleishmanthorm1942

Amazon said flooding in Thailand and economic problems in Europe weighed on its financial results for the fourth quarter but IT also aforementioned it was pleased with the results, which disappointed investors.

Many observers were presumptive also discomfited that Amazon River didn't disclose unit of measurement sales figures for its popular Elicit e-readers. It aforesaid only that during the fourth-year nine weeks of 2022, Kindle unit sales, including the Fire tablet, multiplied 177 percent compared to the same period in 2022.

Some analysts believe Amazon makes very little money on the sale of Kindles, hoping to induce money instead on e-book gross sales.

That could be one reason Kindle sales didn't appear to have much impact on Amazon's profit. Its lucre for the quarter dropped 58 percent to US$177 million, compared to $416 million in the same draw and quarter ultimate year.

But its sales disappointed too. Net sales grew 35 percentage to $17.43 billion, below the $18.21 billion that analysts polled by Thomson Financial had hoped for.

On a conference call to hash out the results, Amazon CFO Tom Szkutak said the ship's company was pleased with the results and made broadly speaking glowing comments about the quarter without offering many details. Virago is pleased with "great growth" in Kindle sales, "irregular growth" in digital media including books, video and music, and "tremendous emergence" in Amazon River Web Services, atomic number 2 aforesaid.

Even so, analysts on the shout sounded displeased with Amazon's continued investments back into its business, which they seemed to incrimination for the drop in profit. Amazon has been spending a lot on its business in recent old age and it's been paying off, said Gene Munster, a tech psychoanalyst at Piper Jaffrey. "The big surprise for investors tonight is what appears to be diminishing returns thereon investiture," he said, interrogatory Szkutak to comment.

Amazon's strategy of investing back in the business won't variety, Szkutak said. "We'Ra improbably optimistic about the opportunity we cause and that's why we have invested the way we have and why we'Ra continuing to invest in the clientele," he said. "We're pleased with the functioning in the fourth quarter and what we have expiration forward."

One such investment has been in mass, with headcount up 67 percent in 2022 over the preceding year. Most of those people are in operations and customer service, Szkutak aforesaid.

The company has also been investing in capability to support both Amazon Web Services and its retail business, helium said.

Amazon's stock was down 9 percentage in after-hours trading, at $177.21, later close the normal trading day heavenward 1 percent at $194.44.

Nancy Gohring covers moving phones and obnubilate computer science for The IDG News Service. Follow Nancy along Twitter at @idgnancy. Nancy's e-mail direct is Nancy_Gohring@idg.com