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Will the medium change the market? Amazon’s Kindle could herald the end of the printed book!
July 31st, 2010
Amazon's Kindle
Occasionally a product arrives that changes the marketplace for ever.
Arguably Apple’s iPhone has changed the mobile phone market while their iPad has ended the dominance of the netbook and laptop for working on the move. Certainly their iPod changed the music industry for ever.
Yet it is Amazon’s Kindle (ebook reader) that may prove to have the most far-reaching affects. It may herald the end of the printed book and traditional publishing.
On 20 July 2010 Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced that Kindle format sales were now greater than sales of hardback books.
He explained: ” While our hardcover sales continue to grow, the Kindle format has now overtaken the hardcover format. Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books– astonishing when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months.”
The online bookseller put out a release full of intriguing facts. Nevertheless, the company still has not released straightforward figures about total Kindle sales or total eBooks sold. Among the other details, the company revealed they have sold three times as many Kindle books in the first half of 2010 compared to the first half of 2009.
Amazon also shared this statistic for paid books: “Over the past three months, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 143 Kindle books. Over the past month, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 180 Kindle books.”
Already the dominance of Amazon has contributed to the disappearance of the traditional High Street bookshop, which is being driven out by a lethal combination of cheaper online prices, guaranteed next day delivery and endless choice. Not to mention ever-increasing shop rents and parking charges.
However, the final nail in the coffin of the small, friendly bookshop may prove to be the Kindle – the iPod of the book world? Now the UK version of the Kindle launches in August.
Even The Sun newspaper featured the news as a lead story yesterday - see http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/fun/gizmo/3075557/Amazon-launch-new-UK-Kindle-e-book-reader.html
Watch this space. Soon your favourite author’s new book may not be available at WH Smith – only as an ebook.
Amazon’s dominance continues.
Tags: marketing
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