While it’s clear that ebooks are continuing to rise in popularity, it’s always interesting to see a progress report on just how significantly e-books are impacting the market. According to a new report from Amazon this morning, ebooks are doing quite well indeed – in fact, they’re now outselling print books in the U.K.!
From Amazon PR (via The Guardian / TheNextWeb):
“Customers in the UK are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books, even as our print business continues to grow. We hit this milestone in the US less than four years after introducing Kindle, so to reach this landmark after just two years in the UK is remarkable and shows how quickly UK readers are embracing Kindle,” said Jorrit Van der Meulen, vice president, Kindle EU.
According to the release, Amazon sold 114 Kindle books for every print book sold this year, and book sales have quadrupled since the Kindle became available in the region. Quadrupled. That’s a pretty serious statement about the extent to which e-books are taking off.
It’s likely that a significant factor in this success is not only the Kindle hardware itself, but the fact the Kindle apps are also available on a number of competing devices, including the iPhone and iPad, essentially turning Kindle into the ultimate cross-platform reading environment.
So, how long before e-books outsell paper books worldwide? It’s only a matter of time…
