Probably Amazon would not be hurt if they just released one sales number - i.e., if they announced that they have sold 8 million Kindles to date.
But if Amazon announced their Kindle sales every quarter - or even every year - competitors would be able to glean some important comparative information. Amazon, for example, is probably tracking (among other things) how the increased availability of overdrive library books may be affecting their sales. This is something that they probably don't want to share with the world. And there are many other such examples.
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