Amazon Posts Strong Financials, Kindle Still a Force of Nature

Amazon announced that it earned net income of $191 million on revenues of $9.91 billion in the second quarter, the latter of which is a 51 percent gain over the revenues from the same quarter a year ago. As always, the Kindle was the star of the show with accelerating (but unspecified) growth and a continued status as the online retailer's best-selling and best-reviewed product.

"Low prices, expanding selection, fast delivery and innovation are driving the fastest growth we've seen in over a decade," said Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. "Kindle 3G with Special Offers has quickly become our bestselling Kindle at only $139. Customers love the convenience of a 3G reader -- no hunting for or paying for Wi-Fi hotspots. Amazon picks up the tab for the 3G wireless, so you have no monthly payments or annual contracts."

Some tech-related highlights from the announcement include:

- Kindle 3G with Special Offers is now Amazon's bestselling Kindle device, and costs only $139.

- The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 950,000 books, including New Releases and 110 of 111 New York Times Bestsellers. Over 800,000 of these books are $9.99 or less, including 65 New York Times Bestsellers. Millions of free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are also available to read on Kindle.

- Amazon.com announced that customers will be able to stream TV shows from CBS's vast library. Amazon Prime customers will be able to instantly watch thousands of episodes from the CBS library at no additional cost to their membership. With the deal, Amazon will add 2,000 episodes to grow the total number of Prime instant videos to more than 8,000 movies and TV shows. Starting this summer, dozens of CBS shows will also become available to Amazon Instant Video customers.

- The company announced three enhancements to Amazon Cloud Drive and Cloud Player: storage plans that include unlimited space for music, free storage for all Amazon MP3 purchases and Cloud Player for Web, now on iPad.