Kindle could be a $1.2B business for Amazon: analyst

It appears as though the electronic book reader has come of age.

According to TechFlash:

Mark Mahaney of Citigroup estimated that Amazon sold 500,000 Kindles last year (he did so by piecing together information from Sprint Nextel, which powers Kindle's wireless feature, and other sources). Mahaney said sales of the e-reader could reach $1.2 billion by 2010.

Amazon is generating significant buzz around the Kindle 2.0 ahead of its anticipated unveiling next week. The company called an "important" press conference with Jeff Bezos on Feb. 9 at a New York library -- and while the company hasn't said what the topic is -- it's widely assumed to be the new Kindle.

Of course, the problem for would-be Kindle buyers of late has been a lack of supply ... certainly not a lack of hype.