The New York Times reports today that Amazon’s Kindle book sales exceeded hardcover sales for the last 3 months. In fact, for every 100 hardcover books sold, 143 Kindle books were sold.
But there were a number of other interesting facts in the story including the following:
- For the last 4 weeks it was 180 Kindle book sales for every 100 hardcover book sales – suggesting that the shift to Kindle books is accelerating.
- These figures do not include over 1 million free books made available on the Kindle.
- These numbers don’t in any way address paperback sales.
- Kindle sales growth tripled when Amazon lowered the price of the standard Kindle from $259 to $189 last month.
Analysis:
- With hardcover books usually costing double the paperback version, we assume more paperback books are usually sold that hardcover books. So in the meantime, more of the “classic” versions of books are sold.
- What is really confusing to Mandelblog is why publishers force consumers to make a choice between the Kindle edition and the physical version. If I am willing to pay $30 for a hardcover book I should be able to get a Kindle version for free. By forcing consumers to choose, the publishers are losing sales.
Amazon Says E-Books Now Top Hardcover Sales (New York Times)
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