If you need any more proof that e-books are set to be a massive deal in 2011, here it is. Amazon has announced that the third-generation Kindle is its worldwide bestselling product of all time. That beats the previous record holder, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.
The retailer says that on its peak trading day of the year, Nov. 29, customers ordered more than 13.7 million items across all its product categories – a record-breaking 158 items per second.
It seems that consumers aren’t buying Kindles instead of iPads, in fact the two appear to complement each other in terms of sales. Amazon’s founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos says in today’s announcement, “We’re seeing that many of the people who are buying Kindles also own an LCD tablet. Customers report using their LCD tablets for games, movies, and web browsing and their Kindles for reading sessions.”
Amazon also says that on Christmas Day, more people turned on new Kindles for the first time, downloaded more Kindle Buy Once, Read Everywhere apps, and purchased more Kindle books than on any other day in history.
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Launched on 27 August this year, the Kindle 3 has been heavily promoted by Amazon through Web and TV ads that often directly compare it favourably against the iPad as a reading device in direct sunlight. Still, Amazon’s policy of making the Kindle format readable across a wide range of devices via apps means that even if you do choose a tablet device or mobile phone for your e-reading, Amazon’s positioned nicely to profit from it.
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