Amazon and Apple must be feeling pretty good about the holidays so far.

Buoyed by Black Friday, Amazon said that November has been the best sales month ever for its Kindle. Amazon still won’t release sales figures, and e-readers could soon be outdated devices, but for now, the Kindle remains the market leader in one of the hottest consumer electronic categories of the year. (It helps that Sony’s new flagship reader and the Barnes & Noble Nook are sold out.)

Meanwhile, traffic on Amazon.com was up 28 per cent from the previous year.

Apple, too, looks to have had a big Black Friday, with online sales up 39 per cent. Sales in Apple’s retail stores appeared down, but overall, the maker of Mac computers, iPhones and iPods seems poised for robust sales this holiday season.

Even brick and mortar retailers tried to tap the web’s magic to boost holiday sales. Using Facebook, Twitter and other online tools, retailers including Walmart and Target turned to social media to promote their Black Friday sales both on and offline. It seems to have worked. Black Friday delivered, and over the weekend US shoppers spent upwards of $900m online, a 10 per cent uptick from last year.

And of course, today is “Cyber Monday”, the supposed kick off of the e-commerce shopping season. Never mind that later days in December see heavier online shopping, or that “Cyber Monday” is a marketing gimmick dreamed up by the National Retail Federation. During the holiday season, we’re all inclined to believe a good myth if it helps get us into the spirit.

Tags: Amazon, apple

November 30, 2009 7:48pm in Consumer Electronics | Comment