Amazon won’t make money on Kindle hardware

ONLINE BOOKSELLER Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has confirmed that there are no profits to be had from new Kindle hardware.

Kindle hardware is sold at a cost, according to Bezos, meaning that Amazon must make its money back through selling ebooks for the devices.

"We sell the hardware at our cost, so it is break-even on the hardware," Bezos told the BBC.

"We want to make money when people use our devices, not when people buy our devices. What we find is that when people buy a Kindle they read four times as much as they did before they bought the Kindle. But they don't stop buying paper books. Kindle owners read four times as much, but they continue to buy both types of books."

Digital books have steadily crept up in sales and have already overtaken paper and hardback sales.

"We hit this milestone in the US less than four years after introducing Kindle, so to reach this landmark after just two years in the UK is remarkable and shows how quickly UK readers are embracing Kindle," said Jorrit Van der Meulen, Amazon VP for Kindle EU in August.

"As a result of the success of Kindle, we're selling more books than ever before on behalf of authors and publishers."

Amazon recently launched a new Kindle with a backlight, something that many users thought it was lacking, and its Kindle Fire device is seen as a competitor to more established tablets because it has a web browser. µ