Kindle eBooks now outselling paperback ones
Amazon’s Kindle eBooks are now outselling their traditional paperback cousins, the company have revealed in the publication of their Q4 2010 financial results.
115 eBooks are now downloaded for every 100 paperbacks bought according to Amazon, with eBooks outselling hardbacks by a massive 3-to-1.
“Thanks to our customers, we achieved two big milestones,” said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com.
“We had our first $10 billion quarter, and after selling millions of third-generation Kindles with the new Pearl e-ink display during the quarter, Kindle books have now overtaken paperback books as the most popular format on Amazon.com.
“Last July we announced that Kindle books had passed hardcovers and predicted that Kindle would surpass paperbacks in the second quarter of this year, so this milestone has come even sooner than we expected – and it’s on top of continued growth in paperback sales.”
Those sniffing at the figures due to the large number of free eBooks availalbe from Aamzon digitally, sniff again; these figures only count paid-for purchases.
Those this mean that the eReader has rode the tablet wave successfully? It’s difficult to say; Kindle eReader software and apps are available on so many mobile devices that without the precise figures as to which platform the books are dowloaded to, we can’t say whether they’re comfortably ahead of tablets in the reading stakes.
The figures must however send a shiver down the spine of printing houses around the world, as the figures are only pointing in one direction for their businesses.
