Amazon customers snapped up more than 4 million Kindle devices in December, making it the retailer's "best holiday ever," according to stats released Thursday.
Amazon did not provide exact sales data, except to reiterate that Kindle sales were "well over" 1 million per week this month. The company did reveal, however, that the Kindle Fire was its best-selling device, followed by the Kindle Touch and original Kindle e-reader.
The company also talked up the contributions of independent publishers—the number one and number four best-selling Kindle books were published via Kindle Direct Publishing.
"We are grateful to our customers worldwide for making this the best holiday ever for Kindle," Amazon chief Jeff Bezos said in a statement. "And in a huge milestone for independent publishing, we'd also like to congratulate Darcie Chan, the author of 'The Mill River Recluse,' and Chris Culver, the author of 'The Abbey,' for writing two of the best-selling Kindle books of the year."
The number-five best-selling Kindle book was also a self-published book—Catherine Bybee's "Wife by Wednesday." Bybee "was formerly an emergency room registered nurse, and has now left her job to focus on writing full-time," Amazon said.
Amazon said gifting of Kindle books was up 175 percent between Black Friday and Christmas Day compared to 2010. This year, Dec. 25 was the biggest day ever for Kindle book downloads.
On the Amazon AppStore, the ad-free version of Angry Birds, Tetris, and Pandora Internet Radio were the most-popular selections. App downloads were apparently up across the board; Google's Android Market and Apple's App Store also saw an explosion in app downloads on Christmas Day.
Physical books were also hot sellers, and Amazon said customers bought enough copies of Walter Isaacson's Steve Jobs biography to create a stack taller than Mt. Everest. Amazon customers also purchased enough copies of Just Dance 3 to give 15 copies to each person who participated in setting the world record for simultaneous dancing, the company said.
Other popular games were Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
On the smartphone front, the Motorola Droid Razr for Verizon Wireless, Samsung Galaxy S II Epic Touch 4G for Sprint, and the Samsung Galaxy S II 4G for AT&T were all popular choices. For more, see Download These Apps First For Your Brand-New Smartphone.