The most-cited figures for 2008 sales have been in the 350,000 to 380,000 range. This week, however, Citi investment analyst Mark Mahaney revised his estimate of Kindles sold this year, from 380,000 to 500,000 – a 32% jump.

Our forum members are skeptical – and I must admit that, like most of our members, I have only seen a handful of Kindles in the wild. Mahaney derived his latest estimate using activation data cited in Sprint’s SEC filings. Sprint is the carrier that provides Kindle’s WhisperNet wireless coverage.

Mahaney also notes that the sales figures would be much higher if Amazon’s Kindle orders had not been severely backlogged at several times this past year. Notably, Kindle was sold out for most of the Christmas shopping season, and that surely affected sales.

Now *that* is something we can all agree on. Let’s hope that Amazon can keep up with the demand for the next generation of its e-book reader.

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