Amazon Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Paper Books

Amazon has announced that in less than four years, it is now selling more Kindle books than paper books — hardcover and paperback combined. While the e-book market is booming, the numbers are still surprising and impressive. Here are some factoids from Amazon’s press release:

  • Since April 1, for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books. This includes sales of hardcover and paperback books by Amazon where there is no Kindle edition. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.
  • So far in 2011, the tremendous growth of Kindle book sales, combined with the continued growth in Amazon’s print book sales, have resulted in the fastest year-over-year growth rate for Amazon’s U.S. books business, in both units and dollars, in over 10 years. This includes books in all formats, print and digital. Free books are excluded in the calculation of growth rates.
  • In the five weeks since its introduction, Kindle with Special Offers for only $114 is already the bestselling member of the Kindle family in the U.S.
  • Amazon sold more than 3x as many Kindle books so far in 2011 as it did during the same period in 2010.
  • Less than one year after introducing the UK Kindle Store, Amazon.co.uk is now selling more Kindle books than hardcover books, even as hardcover sales continue to grow. Since April 1, Amazon.co.uk customers are purchasing Kindle books over hardcover books at a rate of more than 2 to 1.

Kindles are cheaper than ever before. Kindle software is available on millions of devices, spanning popular platforms like Windows PC, Mac OS, Android, iOS, BlackBerry OS, and Windows Phone 7. It’s just faster and more convenient to buy a digital book rather than a paper one. That said, I’m still surprised by the popularity of Kindle books. How about you? Are you surprised that Amazon is selling more e-books than tree-killing books? Also, shouldn’t you buy a copy of Still Man Fights for Kindle?

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

6 thoughts on “Amazon Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Paper Books”

  1. That is pretty impressive. I don't actually buy digital books myself. I prefer hard copies. Though I'd like my text books in digital form.

    Now I'd like to see if they could break it down by platform downloaded to, Whether they were Kindle, Android, iOS, or something else.

    1. I have several of my textbooks as .pdf's as well, it's much more convenient sometimes. In the English department it was a much better deal to have a kindle than buy the physical copies of books. I never came across another major that had as many of the department textbooks available in the kindle store as the English dept, so plenty of people there had kindle's.

  3. It makes sense to me. Kindle books arrive faster, are often cheaper, and don't take up extra space. That takes care of a lot of reasons for people NOT to buy something. And secondarily, without a stack of unread books sitting around tormenting you, you're probably more likely to buy more.

    I know there are a lot of people who haven't boarded the e-book train yet; but I really believe the hardcore readers have. And I would wager they buy more books than the occasional Harry Potter/Dan Brown set — y'know, the equivalent of the COD/Madden gamers.

    My wife — a big reader — was Kindle-resistant for a bit. But with its awesomely readable e-ink and thin/light portability, she soon changed her tune.

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