Amazon announced earlier today that e-books are now outselling paper versions of the same titles. The announcement, while focused on the Kindle, still nevertheless provides insight into the industry in general, including the iBookstore.
Since April, the Internet retailer sold 105 e-books for every 100 printed books. Just four months ago, e-book sales overtook paperback sales. “We’ve been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four year,” Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said.
While the announcement doesn’t come as much of a surprise, I wonder how much of this sales jump is due to people attempting to digitize their book library by purchasing titles they already own – would be interesting to see figures on that.
I believe that digital books are, indeed, the future. They are simple, the enhance ones ability to absorb the content, due to their being “attached” to a web-browser and dictionary – book reading experiences are enhanced with additional information sources.
e-Books can also be interactive – something which paper books just cannot offer, due to their physical natures. Further, digital books are just more economical. They waste fewer materials, are often cheaper, take up less space, etc.
What are your thoughts? Sound off in the comments!
