More Kindle Books being sold than paper

[Rico]

This is pretty incredible to me that it's like this already.  Where's Sam Cogley when you need him? ;)

Just how popular are e-books? Amazon announced Thursday that its customers are now purchasing more Kindle books than print books.
"Customers are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books. We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly—we've been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years," Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, said in a statement.
In July 2010, Amazon announced that sales of electronic books for its Kindle e-book reader surpassed sales of hardcover books on the site. Six months later, sales of Kindle books surpassed that of paperbacks. Now, customers are downloading Kindle books more than hardcovers and paperbacks combined.
Since April 1, for example, Amazon has sold 105 Kindle books for every 100 print books purchased. Amazon did not count free Kindle books in its tally; if it did, that would make the number even higher, the company said.
Kindle sales have helped create Amazon's fastest year-over-year growth for Amazon's U.S. book business, in units and dollars, in more than a decade. So far, Amazon has sold three times as many Kindle books in 2011 as it did during the same period in 2010.
Bezos also championed its latest Kindle device, the $114 ad-supported Kindle with Special Offers. For $25 less than its standard Kindle device, the Special Offers e-reader features advertisements and deals as its screen saver and on the bottom of its home screen.
"We're excited by the response to Kindle with Special Offers for only $114, which has quickly become the bestselling member of the Kindle family," Bezos said. "We continue to receive positive comments from customers on the low $114 price and the money-saving special offers."
In a recent report from Caris & Co., analyst Sandeep Aggarwal said the Kindle is the "most compelling" e-reader on the market and that Amazon could see $5.42 billion in Kindle-generated revenue in 2011, a figure that could climb to at least $7.96 billion in 2012.
Amazon also recently got into the app store game with its Android Appstore, and is reportedly planning its own tablet, though Bezos was coy when asked about it recently.
Rival Barnes & Noble, meanwhile, is holding an e-book event on May 24, during which it is expected to unveil a revamped Nook e-reader.
For more, see PCMag's full review of the Amazon Kindle, as well as reviews of Kindle for Android 2.0, Kindle for iPad, and Kindle for iPhone.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2385592,00.asp

[KingIsaacLinksr]

I still don't know how the $25 price reduction would make ads attractive on a device like that....

But this is great to hear about e-books! 

King

[Feathers]

I'm surprised by this but I really shouldn't be. Paperbacks have long been sold as 'disposable' and digital media just takes this to a higher level (without having to throw the book away).

Personally, I still haven't committed as I'm still not convinced of the longevity of any particular format. I'm all in favour of ereaders, but I want that book I buy today to be available to me in 20 years time (unless I choose to get rid of it). At the moment, there are still too many formats around to make that a sure thing.

On price too, I think that there's a way to go (although I'll be the first to admit that I don't have a magic formula for the 'fair' pricing of digital media).

[billybob476]

I love my Kindle, King the ads are only displayed when the Kindle is in sleep mode, never while you're reading. The price point is getting better for the readers, if they go sub 100 dollars I think they'll have it. If I hadn't bought mine before the ad thing I would have had a hard time choosing the ad-free one.

Now, I still pay between 6 and 10 dollars for a eBook. That still seems a bit high to me for bits but it's comparable to what I'd pay for a "dead tree" book so I personally don't have a huge issue with it.

[Rico]

I'm surprised by this but I really shouldn't be. Paperbacks have long been sold as 'disposable' and digital media just takes this to a higher level (without having to throw the book away).

Personally, I still haven't committed as I'm still not convinced of the longevity of any particular format. I'm all in favour of ereaders, but I want that book I buy today to be available to me in 20 years time (unless I choose to get rid of it). At the moment, there are still too many formats around to make that a sure thing.

On price too, I think that there's a way to go (although I'll be the first to admit that I don't have a magic formula for the 'fair' pricing of digital media).

I'm shocked you haven't jumped on board yet Mike.  Do you really keep paper books in your house around for 20 years?  I thought you had space limitations?  As far as the format of the digital format, there are programs around to convert file formats.  I like Calibre (link below).  With converters I don't think you really have to worry about an out of date format.  This isn't the same problem that VHS - DVD - BluRay has had - those are physical media.  Digital bits (especially text) is very easy to convert.  For the very low hardware cost, everyone should jump in and join the party - if you're reader.  And there are a ton of free books out there too.  Like Joe, I love my Kindle.  :)

http://calibre-ebook.com/

[spaltor]

That's really interesting.  I wonder what the numbers at B&N are.  I may be atypical, but for years I bought all of my print books from Amazon, because they had better prices that B&N.  But when I came to choosing an ereader, I did a lot of reading up on options, and went with the Nook.  So now I'm only buy print books if I'm a collector of a series (Pratchet, Fforde, Moore).  Everything else I'm buying electronically.  But I'm now buying ebooks from B&N instead of print books from Amazon.  

I'd love to see what the industry-wide numbers are.

And wait - there are screensaver ads on the Kindle?  I guess that's not really a big deal, but it seems strange to me.  Especially since it only save you $25 off the purchase price.  In my opinion, if you purchase an ereader, and purchase the books you're reading, you shouldn't see any ads whatsoever.

I wish there was a way to somehow scan or input information from books I already own, and get a digital copy.  I mean, I already own the book, right?  I just would like to get rid of the physical copy to save some space.

[billybob476]

And wait - there are screensaver ads on the Kindle?  I guess that's not really a big deal, but it seems strange to me.  Especially since it only save you $25 off the purchase price.  In my opinion, if you purchase an ereader, and purchase the books you're reading, you shouldn't see any ads whatsoever.

The ad-enabled version is the cheapest option at 114.00, you can still buy the ad-free one for 139.00. I'm glad they retained that choice.

[Feathers]

Sue put my thoughts across exactly.

I don't keep all my books, I've lost a lot recently, but those I keep are sets of things that I've bought over the years (like Terry Pratchett) and those I'll hang on to forever. I'm a completist at heart :)

Format converters do exist but the DRM limits their use (I know you can strib DRM with them as well but that's legally grey since apparently you only licence the content of ebooks, you don't own it).

As with Sue (again) and because I'm a completist, I also want all my existing books in whatever format I choose and I don't want to buy them again. That leaves only illegal options open to me.

[Feathers]

I should add that I have a whole load of Star Trek SCE books in eReader format that I've bought over the years so I'm not a complete abstainer.

[Rico]

I still buy paper made books too for things that I want in that format and/or is more of a collection type of thing.  But I read a lot of books once and that's it.  And for that a Kindle is great.  Just because you own some type of eBook reader, it doesn't stop you from saving or buying more paper type books for some of them

[Feathers]

I still like the use of libraries for reading things once (although I can't remember the last time I actually visited one) but reality means I tend to buy.

[Meds]

This makes me very sad. I love books, as a writer I would love to see the cover of my book in people's hands on public transport. Plastic pad is no help to me to spread the word.
Tech may well be great but it's also the death knoll of artistic enjoyment. To hold a paper book is magical, the turn of a page, the smell and the sharing. Very sad day.

[spaltor]

Interesting point, Meds.

I remember reading somewhere that the genre with the biggest number of ebook sales are the romance "bodice ripper" novels.  And the people who bought those types of books love the ereaders because they can read in public and not be embarrassed.  I hadn't thought about that as a marketing killer before you brought it up.  I have definitely had books recommended to me and then seen people reading them on the train, and that bumps them up my internal queue a little bit.

For me, my ereader is about space.  More and more, I hate clutter, and I definitely have very little remaining shelf space.  So from now on, I'm only buying select few physical books.  Everything else I purchase, I will get electronically.  On the Nook, there is also a "Lend Me" feature.  You can "lend" another Nook-user a book for a given amount of time, at which point that person has access to it and you do not.  Some friends and I have started sharing via Nook, and rotating who actually makes the purchase. Does Kindle have anything similar?

[Rico]

Yes, you can share books on the Kindle in a limited way so far but they have to be all on the same account - like a family might have.  There is talk they might expand this to include the ability to have a small group of friends you can lend to.

Again, I love to read and was in the Sci-Fi book club for literally decades.  But there are many books I just read once and bang that's it.  Maybe this will actually make book companies start putting out more special and unique editions of books - like signed by the author, real leather bindings, etc. to get people to buy those.  Right now, this has actually been generally a great thing for the book folks and created a surge in buying.  And at prices close to the paper version.  I also just heard Kindle is probably also going to be offering their books in the ePub format - which is very universal and should make the worries over format pretty much non-existent.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Also sounds like either the nook or kindle is going to have some technology to allow writers to "sign" your e-book soon. 

King