The very fact that “print books” is now a phrase that people understand — even one decade ago, would anyone have expected a book to be something other than print? — is testament to the remarkable explosion in ebook sales over the last few years. Now, Amazon, which rolled out its first-generation Kindle in November of 2007, less than four years ago, says that Kindle books are now consistently outselling hardcover and paperback books combined.
“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,” said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon.com. “In addition, 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. We continue to receive positive comments from customers on the low $114 price and the money-saving special offers. We’re grateful to our customers for continuing to make Kindle the bestselling e-reader in the world and the Kindle Store the most popular e-bookstore in the world.”
Between Amazon’s disruptive success and that of Netflix, which similarly upended its DVD-by-mail service with its popular streaming offerings, it really feels like we are, as Louis C.K. says, living in the future.
(via BGR)
