Amazon Reports Selling More Ebooks Than Hardbacks
July 21st, 2010 | 
Author: 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.
Posted in Industry news
I believe the speed with you can get an ebook contributes greatly to their growing popularity.
I have some ebooks but; there is still nothing like holding a book in your hands.
I agree with you, Sue. It’s fun to read “ebooks” on my Kindle, but… nothing can compare to curling up in front of a crackling fire in an over-stuffed chair covered with a fluffy afghan that your grandma made, holding a REAL book in your hands, and getting lost in a romantic story. Ahhh…what heaven, huh?
Sincerely,
Cynde (Cynde’s Got The Write Stuff)
http://cyndes-got-the-write-stuff.blogspot.com/
I don’t have a kindle yet, but hope to get one soon. I still like real books the best.
I seem to be in the minority here. I FAR prefer ebooks to paperback books. I LOVE the speed of getting an ebook…buy it and have it a minute or two later.
I love the variety of material available in ebook. Large print run publishers are governed by numbers…they must publish only things they think will sell thousands of copies. Ebook publishers can cater much more to niche readerships…which allows them to publish things profitably that paper publishers could not publish…this includes a lot of new authors who write wonderful stories but who do not have established readerships. I love the size of my ebook reader. The iPod is very small and fits in its own pocket in my purse, which means I can easily carry it everywhere I go. I suppose I could do the same with a paperback book, but I usually didn’t. I like the scalability of fonts that is possible with ebooks. There have been some print books that I have stopped reading because of the size of the font. With paper there is no choice…no opportunity to increase the font size. With ebooks I can increase the font size to something I can comfortably read. As for cozy…I find the iPod every bit as cozy as a paper book. It fits my hand better, it is lightweight so doesn’t make my hand ache from holding the spine open like paper books do.
I still buy some things in paper…computer books…some books that have a lot of resources…but I don’t buy much fiction in paper…other than used fiction paperbacks which I buy and give away here sometimes.
I’d rather read an ebook than a paper book any day of the week.
I love holding a book in my hands there is nothing like the feeling of a book but I do love the speed and ease of my ereader. Now a days I only buy special books in paper back or hardcover.
Gabrielle