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Kindle: Would you prefer it to a book?
Amazon's Kindle

Amazon takes a tumble

Hugo Duncan
24 Jul 2009


Legions of Stephenie Meyer fans could not stop Amazon slumping to a 10% fall in profits.

The American author's Twilight series dominated the best-sellers list at the UK business amazon.co.uk between April and June.

All four vampire novels made it into the top 10 with the last instalment, Breaking Dawn, topping the list.

The film of the first book, Twilight, was also the best-selling DVD although it was closely followed by Slumdog Millionaire, even though the Danny Boyle film only came out towards the end of the quarter at the end of May.

However, it was not enough to prevent profits at Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, tumbling from $158 million (£96 million) in the second quarter last year to $142 million this time around.

Sales were up 14% to $4.65 billion but profits were wiped out by a legal settlement with Toys r us. A UK spokesman said: “Despite the fact we are seeing the economic slump all around us, the internet is still going well. People are going there because it is cheaper than the high street and people are looking for value.”

The biggest-selling album in the UK during the quarter was 21st Century Breakdown by US rock band Green Day. Lily Allen was the best-selling British artist. Classical music fans, although perhaps not experts, were also out in force. The 99 Most Essential Pieces of Classical Music topped the download charts for MP3 players.

Amazon chief executive Jeffrey Bezos apologised to customers for deleting rogue copies of George Orwell novels 1984 and Animal Farm from their handheld Kindle e-readers.

“Our solution to the problem was stupid, thoughtless, and painfully out of line with our principles,” he said.

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