Amazon loves to show off when it is doing well, and the new Kindle is affording the giant the opportunity to strut its stuff up and down the internet’s streets. The new Kindle, Amazon is crowing, is a massive hit with consumers.
Speaking through their usual cloud of ratios rather than actual numbers, Amazon announced that “It’s still October and we’ve already sold more Kindle devices since launch than we did during the entire fourth quarter of last year,” and that “it’s clear that this is going to be the biggest holiday for Kindle yet–by far.”
All those Kindle sales are really beginning to pay off in terms of book sales. While Kindle ebook sales have yet to overtake total paperback sales on Amazon.com (they have taken over hardcover sales), for the top 10, 25, 100, and 1000 bestselling books on Amazon, Kindle ebooks are outselling all print books (hard and softcover).
If you were waiting for the ebook revolution to finally take place, it is now. This is the moment that technologists promised ten years ago, when electronic book sales would begin to have a massive impact on new book sales.
Amazon also reported that for the first nine months of 2010 compared to the same period of 2009, the company sold three times as many ebooks. That outpaced the larger ebook market’s growth of 193%.
To counterbalance all this Kindle hype, do recall that Apple sold 4.2 million iPads last quarter and we might be seeing the first full color Nook just around the corner. This war is far from over.
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