E-Books Are Outselling Paperback ay Amazon
Amazon have just published their figures for the final quarter of 2010 when their sales passed $10bn for the first time, reaching 12.95bn but still below analysts expectation causing a drop in the share price. What was revealed at the same time was that e-books out sold paperbacks during that same period.
In the US, e-books for Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader are outselling paperbacks by 15% since the start of the year but at the same time sales of paperbacks are growing as well.
Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos said that Kindle books have now overtaken paperbacks as the most popular format on Amazon.com and that Amazon had sold “millions” of third-generation Kindle e-book readers without specifying actually the amount sold.
He also said that Amazon announced last July that e-books had outsold hardbacks in the US and predicted that paperbacks would be outsold by the 2nd quarter of 2011 but it has happened sooner than expected.
The Kindle accounts for 41.5% of the e-reader market and are expected to sell more than 8 million of the Kindles this year, well over a three-fold increase on 2010 according to analysts.
The e-reader market is fast expanding around the world with all the major electronic brands having their own models. There are currently 36 different models available. The demand for stand alone e-readers is growing even in the face of growing demand for iPad tablets which offers much more functionality to the user. Apple sold almost 7.5 million iPads in the first six months where as 6 million e-readers in total were sold in 2010.
While it does not have the iPad’s versatility to play games like the ones found here, the Kindle Wi-Fi sells for $139 and can hold up to 3500 books, has a 6” screen and weighs in at only 8.5onces (242gms). And it probably won’t be long before you can play games on Kindle too.
Amazon have over 700,000 e-books available for sale with the majority available foe less than $10. There are also 1.8 million free, out of copyright books also available including many of the classics. Before purchasing an e-book you are able to download and read one or two chapters to see if you like it.
