Kindle revenue to reach $8B in 2012

Investment bank Caris & Co. estimates that revenues from Amazon's Kindle will exceed $5B in 2011

While Amazon may be tight-lipped when it comes to sharing Kindle numbers and stats, that isn’t stopping other people from guessing how many Kindles have been sold, or how much revenue the Kindle is generating. Investment bank Caris & Co. has released its own estimate: in 2011, Kindle revenues will reach $5.42 billion, and by 2012, they’ll reach nearly $8 billion.

Analysts examined the entire Kindle ecosystem, including the Kindle itself and its various versions, e-books, embedded audio and video clips, magazines, blogs, Kindle accessories and more. Their researched resulted in a comprehensive chart of Kindle revenues since 2008, when Caris & Co. estimates Amazon generated $86 million in Kindle revenues. By 2010, Amazon raked in $3.3 billion in Kindle revenues, translating to 307% year-over-year growth. By the end of 2011, Caris & Co. predict that Amazon will see $5.42 billion in Kindle revenues, representing a more modest 65% year-over-year growth rate. And in 2012, the investment bank estimates Amazon’s Kindle revenues will reach a hefty $7.95 billion.

Of the $5.42 billion that Amazon may see this year, Caris & Co. estimates that the company will rake in some $1.2 billion in gross profits. By 2012, Amazon could be seeing nearly $2 billion in gross profits (next up on my to-do list: seduce Jeff Bezos and get the secret combination to his Gringotts bank vault).

As the Kindle ecosystem continues to expand, users will not only continue to buy more e-books, subscriptions, accessories, and more, but will also their Kindles to access other kinds of content, such as email, photos, video, and music.  

Of course, Amazon doesn’t disclose any details related to Kindle sales, so the Caris & Co. researchers based their findings on anecdotal evidence and press releases.

Some might remember that back in December, a rumor was circulating that Amazon had sold some eight million Kindles in 2010, which would’ve beat out analysts’ expectations. Goldman Sachs had predicted that Amazon would sell between four and five million Kindles.

While Amazon refuses to disclose Kindle sales figures, it LOVES to boast about through-the-roof Kindle sales. In mid-December, Amazon patted itself on the back as it announced that more Kindles had been sold in the preceding 73 days than in all of 2009.