No matter how you look at it, Amazon had a banner 2009. Total revenue at the e-tailer rose 28% for the year, to $24.5 billion, and net income increased 40%, to $902 million. The fourth quarter was the best of the year with sales up 42% and earnings jumping 71%. The North America media group had a solid fourth quarter with sales up 20%, to $2.1 billion and North American media group sales for the full year rose 11.5%, to just under $6 billion. The bigger gains, however, came in the electronics and other general merchandise segment where North America sales jumped 53% in the last quarter and 42% for the year with the category benefiting from the acquisition of Zappos.com which the company acquired November 1 and which added $200 million to revenue. The EGM segment is also home to the Kindle. In a statement, CEO Jeff Bezos said, “millions of people now own Kindles.” Bezos was not present during the conference call discussing results, but the release further noted that Amazon now sells six Kindle books for every 10 physical books on the 410,000 e-books it has in stock (excluding free e-books).

Executives who stood in for Bezos during the conference deflected most questions about the future plans for the Kindle given increased competition from Apple and others. CFO Tom Szkutak. said Amazon believes that despite the introduction of multifunctional devices, customers still want a device dedicated to reading. He declined to discuss Amazon's relationship with publishers, particularly on the question of pricing, but said Amazon's focus remains on providing customers with great selection at low prices. Szkutak wouldn't say whether Amazon has sold at least two million Kindles or not, but an analyst told the Wall Street Journal that he estimates Kindle will generate revenue of $980 million this year.

Amazon doesn't see business slowing down in the first quarter with its forecast calling for revenue to increase 32% to 43% and operating income to rise by as much as 50%. Revenue will benefit from inclusion of Zappos and $500 million in deffered revenue because of an accounting change.