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Archive for the ‘Industry news’ Category

In an article appearing in The Washington Post on Tuesday Amazon was quoted. Amazon reported that sales of their Kindle reader grew every month during the second quarter. Even more striking is the statement that they are now selling almost twice as many ebooks as hardbacks. In july sales of ebooks climbed to 180 ebooks for every 100 hardback sold through Amazon.

This news naturally has ebook publishers jumping for joy and industry insiders wondering whether ebooks have finally reached a tipping point where they will be considered as viable as paperbacks and hardbacks. 

Ebook sales are on the increase at Amazon as well. According to the same article, ebook sales at Amazon tripled in the first half of the year over the same period last year. Kindle ebook sales also increased over broader ebook sales.

The bottom line…Amazon’s Kindle Reader and Amazon’s Kindle formatted ebooks are doing just fine amidst competition from other reading platforms including Sony Reader, iPad, and a number of smaller name ebook readers that are not as well known.

One reason the sale of Kindle ebooks might be outpacing broader ebook sales is that Amazon Kindle has been proactive in releasing the Kindle ebook reading software for devices other than Kindle ebook reading devices. The recent release of the Kindle app for Android phone made the Kindle ebooks attractive to the many users of that device. Other applications for desktop and laptop computers, iPod Touch and iPod phone, and some models of Blackberry had already made Kindle formatted ebooks attractive to users of those devices. 

Barnes and Noble appears to be in the process of doing much the same with their ebook reading software which works on devices other than the Nook ebook reader. I already have the Barnes & Noble ebook reading software on my iPod and I read that Barnes and Noble was going to release its ebook reading software in an app for the Android phone soon.  

Though ebooks certainly have a ways to go before they overtake paperback sales they are most certainly making strides in that direction.