Amazon rides a razor-thin wave to $21.27 billion in sales in first full quarter of new Kindles

“Our approach is to work hard to charge less,” Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wrote in October. “Sell devices near breakeven and you can pack a lot of sophisticated hardware into a very low price point.” That’s the philosophy of Amazon’s entire business, not just its Kindles: high volume, low margins, maximum synergy. Sell anything you can, as much as you can, for as little as you can, to remain the retail provider of first resort.