Bumper e-book Christmas for Amazon

Amazon's Kindle could be in for some stiff competition next year

More online shoppers bought e-books on Christmas Day than traditional books for the first time ever, according to e-commerce giant Amazon.com.

The firm said in a Boxing Day statement that its Kindle e-book reader device has become the “most gifted item in Amazon’s history”.

"We are grateful to our customers for making Kindle the most gifted item ever in our history," said Jeff Bezos, founder and chief executive of Amazon.com. " On behalf of Amazon.com employees around the world, we wish everyone happy holidays and happy reading."

The news follows a strong November for the device, which saw the Kindle as the top-selling item across all Amazon categories through November. Figures for the UK are currently unavailable.

The Kindle e-book store now contains over 390,000 books, according to Amazon, although the firm faces competition from publisher Barnes & Noble, whose Nook e-book reader sold out completely through pre-orders by the end of November.

Gartner analyst Allen Weiner noted in a blog posting last month that e-books would be more successful in 2010 than they had this year, with Kindle facing a host of new challengers likely to be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.

“The simple caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) seems like the watchword for those currently shopping for e-readers. What seems cool today could be a paperweight next holiday season,” he wrote.

“Publishers must not lose faith in the digital opportunity despite the market cacophony; pushing for open standards and creative value-added e-reading applications should be the publishing world’s immediate course of action.”