This article is more than 13 years old. See today’s top stories here.

Amazon Kindle Sold 'At Cost,' CEO Jeff Bezos Confirms

Amazon Doesn't Make Any Money Off The Sales Of Kindles
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR AMAZON - Amazon CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos speaks at an Amazon Kindle Press Conference at the Barker Hangar on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012, in Santa Monica, Calif. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision for Amazon/AP Images)
IMAGE DISTRIBUTED FOR AMAZON - Amazon CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos speaks at an Amazon Kindle Press Conference at the Barker Hangar on Thursday, Sept. 6, 2012, in Santa Monica, Calif. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision for Amazon/AP Images)

(Reuters) - Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos confirmed on Thursday that the online retailer sells its Kindle e-reader "at cost", with profit coming instead from sales of online content.

Bezos' remarks, in an interview with the BBC, marked the first time the company had confirmed long-held Wall Street assumptions that it did not make a profit on sales of the popular tablet.

The aggressive pricing furthers Bezos' goal of getting Kindle tablets into the hands of as many buyers of Amazon's online content -- from games and books to video -- as possible.

Apple, by contrast, makes much of its profit from hardware sales. It sells a single-sized iPad at costs ranging from $399 to $829, depending on storage capacity, screen resolution and wireless connectivity.

(Reporting by Michelle Conlin; Editing by Ken Wills)

Close

MORE IN Tech

MORE IN LIFE