Amazon's Kindle expected to be hot holiday seller

Analysts see it as this season's iPod
By ANDREA JAMESP-I REPORTER
Amazon.com's e-book reader Kindle is projected to be a hot holiday seller this year, according to a Citigroup research report.
Kindle could sell 380,000 units in 2008, more than double what Citigroup research analyst Mark Mahaney had previously expected
"In its first year, that's exactly how many iPods were sold," Mahaney wrote in a report published Sunday. "Turns out the Kindle is becoming the iPod of the book world."
Amazon has kept famously silent about the number of Kindle e-book readers it sells, but that doesn't stop analysts from trying to estimate sales. The retailer began selling the Kindle in November. It's a hand-held electronic book device that can download a book, chosen from more than 150,000 titles, in less than a minute. The device sells for $359.
Kindle's popularity could be helped by a dearth of other gadget gifts this holiday season, according to the report.
Mahaney previously had predicted that Kindle would bring in up to $750 million in revenue by 2010.
He's now pushed that figure to $1 billion.
Mahaney based his figures on data that Amazon has provided, as well as the following:
Kindle is at the top of Amazon's best-seller list in the electronics category.
The number of customer reviews has surpassed 4,000 – and a growing percentage is positive.
TechCrunch, a technology news blog, reported that Amazon has sold 240,000 Kindles, based on an anonymous source.
Silicon Alley Insider writer Peter Kafka wrote Monday morning that Kindle skepticism has turned to euphoria.
But, he cautioned, "We still think that there's a fundamental difference between the Kindle and the iPod that will slow adoption: iPod users immediately had access to thousands of songs they already owned the minute they synced their machines to their computers. And they could get anything else they wanted for free (if they chose to steal). Kindle users, however, are pretty much forced to pay $9.99 each time they want a new title."
Amazon's stock jumped more than 9 percent Monday, closing at $88.09.