Sales of digital e-books have outstripped real books for the first time, according to Amazon.
Four years after the launch of electronic novels, the firm announced it has sold 105 e-books for every 100 printed books over the past six weeks.
 |
| Bestseller: The e-book is outselling text versions for the first time ever |
While e-book sales have previously outsold hardback books, never before have they exceeded sales of all books, in both hardback and paperback forms.
The books can be read on a range of electronic devices - from Kindles to computers, iPods, iPhones, iPads and BlackBerrys.
Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon.com, said it was a shock the sales had taken hold of the market so quickly.
'Customers are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books,' he said.
'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.'
So far, 2001 appears to have been a crucial year for e-book sales. Since January Amazon has shifted more than three-times as many Kindle books as it did in the same period last year.
The figures, which are for its U.S. website, are not just limited to cases where both formats are available - they include printed books for which there is no electronic edition. Free e-books have also not been taken into account, for the sake of fairness.
Outside the U.S., figures are also massively on the rise. In the U.K., where Amazon's Kindle store opened just a year ago, e-books now outsell hardbacks at a ratio of two-to-one.
Amazon began selling hardcover and paperback books in July 1995. Twelve years later it launched e-books and by July 2010 Kindle book sales had surpassed sales of hardbacks.
Six months later Kindle books began outselling paperbacks and, now, the format is more popular than all text books put together.
The Kindle bookstore now offers more than 950,000 books as well as more than 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books.
e-books: Numbers talk
 |
| A novel idea: One e-reader can hold thousands of books |
Since April 1, for every 100 hardback or paperback print books sold on Amazon, it has shifted 105 Kindle books.
With the rise of the e-book, 2011 has been the fastest growing year for Amazon's U.S. books business in more than a decade.
Three times as many e-books have been sold so far in 2011 compared to last year
Its best-selling Kindle currently costs $114.
In Britain, Kindle books are outselling hardcover books at a rate of more than two to one
The U.S. Kindle Store now offers more than 950,000 books, with more than 175,000 added in the last five months
© Daily Mail, London |
E-mail
