Although unlikely in its current form to ever be a serious gaming platform, Amazon's Kindle e-book reader continues to impress in terms of sales.

Although Amazon - still - isn't actually talking figures. Instead, it's announced that the current generation of Kindle devices are its fastest sellers ever.

"It's still October and we've already sold more Kindle devices since launch than we did during the entire fourth quarter of last year - astonishing because the fourth quarter is the busiest time of year on Amazon," said Steve Kessel, senior vice president, Amazon Kindle.

Judged by its cover

Priced from around £100 or $139, the new Kindles are also the bestselling products on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

And further demonstrating Amazon's push into digital delivery, Kessel revealed customers are choosing Kindle e-books at a rate of greater than 2 to 1 compared to the combined total sales of physical hardcover and paperback books on Amazon.

In addition, Amazon sold more than three times as many Kindle books in the first nine months of 2010 as in the first nine months of 2009.

It's expected that Amazon will also launch a store for Android apps at some point in the future too - something that could really shake up business models on Google's platform.

[source: Amazon]