“I beg your indulgence on the question of how many Kindles have been sold,” Bezos said in reply to a question at Amazon’s annual shareholders meeting in Seattle, Washington.<\/p>\n
“I’m not sure we ever will reveal all of the numbers,” he said. “Our point of view on that is that there can often be a competitive advantage in keeping the numbers close.”<\/p>\n
Bezos acknowledged that he “looks at the numbers avidly every morning” but said the shareholder who asked the question “may just have to remain curious.”<\/p>\n
Declining to reveal numbers, Bezos said that while Amazon was “investing very heavily in the digital business” “I don’t want people to think that it’s already a big cash flow generator for us.”<\/p>\n
The Amazon CEO also said a colour version of the Kindle was not imminent.<\/p>\n
“I know it’s multiple years. I don’t know how many years but it’s years,” he said.<\/p>\n
“I’ve seen the colour displays in the laboratory and I can assure you they’re not ready for prime time,” Bezos said.<\/p>\n
Amazon this month unveiled a large-screen version of its popular e-reader, the Kindle DX, promoting it as a handier device for reading newspapers, magazines and textbooks.<\/p>\n
The Kindle DX costs 489 dollars. Earlier versions of the Kindle cost 359 dollars.<\/p>\n