Amazon announced its second quarter earnings today. Net sales were up 41% at $6.57 billion, compared with $4.65 billion in the second quarter of ’09.

"Excluding the $48 million unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter, net sales would have grown 42% compared with second quarter 2009," the company said.

Operating income increased 71% to $270 million in Q2, compared with $159 million in Q2 2009. "The unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange rates throughout the quarter on operating income was $10 million. Second quarter 2009 operating income was negatively impacted by a $51 million legal settlement," says Amazon.

Net income reached $207 million, a 45% increase over the previous year.

"We’re seeing rapid growth in Kindle, Amazon Web Services, third-party sales, and retail," says Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. "We’re also encouraged by what we see in mobile. In the last twelve months, customers around the world have ordered more than $1 billion of products from Amazon using a mobile device.

"The leading mobile commerce device today is the smartphone, but we’re excited by the potential of the new category of wireless tablet computers," adds Bezos. "Over time, tablet computers could become a meaningful additional driver for our business."

Kindle may play an increasingly large role in Amazon’s numbers, as prices have come down for it and other eReaders.