Amazon does have plenty of other numbers in an earnings report that may also play up just how nasty last year was for so many companies: that $9.5 billion in net sales is up 42 percent over $670 million in Q408. Even without a $354 million favorable impact from foreign exchange rates changes, the increase would be a striking 37 percent.  Zappos, the retails company acquired last year, added $200 million to Q4 revenue. Amazon’s net income rose 71 percent over Q408, to $0.85 per share from $225 million, or $0.52 per share in Q408. (Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI) expected earnings of $0.72 per share on revenue of $9.04 billion. The impressive results helped Amazon avoid a post-iPad announcement slump: shares are trading up after hours.

Earnings call: Bezos made a cameo appearance in the press release but not for the call. That’s not unusual but it’s more fun when he’s on. CFO Tom Szkutak explained some accounting changes in the way Kindle will be recognized going forward: Sales are “considered arrangements with multiple elements which include the device, wireless connectivity and software upgrades.” Device revenue, which is the a “substantial portion” of the total price will be recognized on delivery. Revenue for the Whispersync wireless connectivity and software upgrades will still be amortized over the estimated two-year life of the device. Amazon had amortized about $500 million of deferred revenue between 201 and 2011.

—Media sales and competition: Media revenues were up 26 percent but analysts expressed some concern about the ability to sustain substantial growth with increasing competition, particularly on the e-book side. Szkutak: “We think we are positioned very nicely from a digital perspective. ... We think we are focused on the customer and I think Kindle is certainly a good example of that. We think we’ve built a very-nice purpose-built device ... that is purpose-built for reading and we believe that readers deserve to have a dedicated device with great selection and great prices.” Szkutak declined to speculate on whether Amazon could sell media as a bundle or in combined store, rather than the current silos: “We are focused on what is right for customers and many of those have distinct customer sets that are different from each other and we are focused on how to make that experience great.”

—Kindle numbers: Inevitably, the question about Kindle devices sold came up in various forms. Asked by one analyst to confirm that the Bezos reference to “million” of Kindle users means it’s safe to assume more than 2 million Kindles have been sold, Szkutak stuck with the playbook. No details about international-domestic split either.

—iPad: Szkutak said Kindle (which has the number one e-reader app in the iPhone store now) will be on the iPad. No details about whether they are developing an iPad version.

Earnings release | Webcast | Slides | Transcript (via SeeklngAlpha)

		EPS*	Rev. vs Q408	Net Inc. vs Q408
Amazon	Release		42%	71%

* vs. Analysts' Estimates: Beat Met Missed