On the Kindle – a device Apple CEO Steve Jobs once suggested to the New York Times he wasn’t sure of the long-term future of – the analyst claims greater than expected Kindle sales, predicting 2 million of the devices will sell this year, as opposed to his previous 1.5 million sales estimates.

Amazon’s Kindle has, “definitively accustomed itself as the iPod of the book world,” writes Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney.

Mahaney has numerous nuggets of data to offer on the giant online retailer in a note distributed to clients offering his recommendation to buy shares in the company, with a price target that’s up $30 to $170 per share.

The analyst cites his own analysis which suggests accelerating online retail sales this season, with Amazon accepting online allotment and experiencing accelerating company cartage to its site.

That’s no mean feat – the analyst predicts $1.6 billion in Kindle and eBook sales next year, generating 5 percent of Amazon’s revenue.

However, while Mahaney thinks Kindle has become the iPod of the book world, publishers continue to explore new publishing opportunities and technologies, suggesting the way to be open for multiple players in the segment, not excepting Apple with its own iPod-based vision for publishing.

This holiday season, you may find yourself with an awful lot of spare time on your hands. That is, besides the cooking, cleaning, shopping, and blasting snow that you’re declared to be doing. Ahem. So why not spend a little of that time enjoying some specially priced bundles of movies from the iTunes Store?

That’s right–Apple has formed out a Movie Bundles section, which pairs up accepted films at discounted prices. You could get your fill of Patrick Swayze’s Dirty Dancing with a Cuba-based prequel that’s, well, okay. Enjoy the crime classics Reservoir Dogs and Bad Lieutenant in the Harvey Keitel Double Feature. Scream with terror as you bear witness to the horror of not one, but two Charlie’s Angels films. There are aswell bundles for Dane Cook, Bad Boys, X-Men, Scarlett Johansson, pre-Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger, and more.

Prices for the bundles start at $10 to $15 for two films and rise up to $35 for as many as four films. The X-Men Quadrilogy, for example, runs $30 as a bundle, instead of $45 if purchased individually. While you can find most of these titles for much less at discount DVD stores, you still can’t beat the convenience of digital downloads. No HandBrake required.