Amazon.com Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Print Books

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1565581&highlight=

by mikecane • 15 years ago

160 67 15 years ago

TomOfTTB• 15 years ago

For me this is a testament to intangible media. Items that you own but that require no space or attention (physical items need to be rearranged on occasion, dusted, etc...)

I often find myself buying books I want to read in the future simply because it's only $10-$25 and I don't want to forget about them (I never liked the wish lists for whatever reason). Which is easy to do since there's no penalty in space (either disk or physical)

I also find myself buying more from Amazon because I don't have to wait for shipping (and Kindle delivery actually makes getting the book faster than if I drove to the local Barnes and Noble)

So for me the Kindle has shifted my book purchasing to e-books but it has also dramatically increased the amount I spend on books from Amazon.

mahrain• 15 years ago

In this case convenience trumps freedom, it seems. I find Richard Stallman's arguments against what he calls the "Swindle" being defective by design, and taking essential freedoms away from readers, such as the ability to buy a book anonymously using cash, lending a book to friends and keeping it as long as you want.

Would it be that my first statement is true, or are consumers just not aware of this?

thalur• 15 years ago

I can only speak for myself, but the arguments you list aren't things I would really consider at the time of purchase: I've never yet wanted to buy a book anonymously using cash, though I won't rule out wanting to do so in the future; the lack of/limited lending is a concern, but if the cost of the book is low (e.g. ~£1 like a lot of self-pub books are) then I would be happy to buy a copy instead of borrow one, and if I'm buying a book (of any sort) the lending potential of that book doesn't figure into my decision at all anyway.

simonsarris2• 15 years ago

That's like trying to compare the freedom of a car vs the freedom of a bicycle.

It's not "taking away freedoms" if you buy The Catcher in the Rye Kindle Edition vs Print Edition

It's purchasing a completely different thing.

They have the same end, a lot of the time. You end up reading The Catcher in the Rye.

One is cheaper and is easier to travel with, the other you can lend to your friends a lot easier. One dies if batteries die, the other gets warped pages. One can be taken into the bathtub with just a zip-loc bag to protect it, the other runs the risk of getting rippled pages.

So it gives the "freedom" of being able to travel with ~500 books instead of 4, gives the freedom of easier bathtub reading, takes away the freedom of lending to friends, etc.

It is simply a different product.

warmfuzzykitten• 15 years ago

Actually, you can lend Kindle books. Paying cash is a "freedom" consumers give up willingly in every area of life. Why can't you keep a Kindle book as long as you want? Bit rot?

I might add that consumers also give up the freedom to cut down trees to make paper, wait for physical delivery, have piles of books clutter up the house and periodically haul them away. I think they actually are aware of these.

bretthopper• 15 years ago

I'm still amazed at how fast these companies can add a new distribution model that surpasses the one they built their businesses on.

Amazon:

Kindle release: November 19, 2007

Date surpassed: ~May 2011

---

Netflix:

Streaming started: Fall/Winter 2008?

Date surpassed: ~November 2010

simonsarris2• 15 years ago

What amazes me more is that Netflix began in 1997 and had the foresight to name themselves Netflix and not Mail-flix, yet they didn't begin streaming until 11 years later.

I wonder how long they were working on streaming before it was released. A lot of planning must have gone into something that beat the company's traditional model in just two years.

anamax• 15 years ago

I talked to NetFlix about streaming in 2004 and I got the impression that they'd been working on it for some time. (Thinking about streaming is no big deal - there were pre-99 startups working on streaming and Hastings surely knew about them.)

solutionyogi• 15 years ago

Personally, I don't think the 'Net' in NetFlix is about streaming. It's about the InterNET. Yes, the delivery mechanism was based on physical mail, but everything else was done on Internet [Browsing/Selection/Recommendations]. This is in contrast to B&M stores like Blockbuster.

[I don't want to take anything away from Netflix, I have completely stopped using DVDs since they started streaming movies. They completely rule the online streaming market.]

MaxGabriel2• 15 years ago

Its such a struggle for me deciding if I want print or Kindle. I'm doing research from these books usually so I need to be able to extract the text from them. For a print book, this involves a photography+OCR setup, which isn't that convenient but much quicker than transcribing. For Kindle, I have to transcribe because my OCR software screenshot reader only works on PC (which is 3 lbs heavier, is permanently married to an outlet, and sounds like an airplane taking off compared to my mac air).

On the issue of price, usually kindle is pretty good but so far used books+amazon prime can beat that price.

mikecane2• 15 years ago

FYI, for portable OCR, you might want to try: http://www.wizcomtech.com/eng/home/a/01/defaultpromo.asp

I own an old version. It's line by line, and accuracy depends on the typeface used, but I have generally loved having mine. (Sorry for the pop-up. It seems the URL will 404 without it.)

JulianMorrison• 15 years ago

Kindle is a reflective display, right?

So put it in the scanner.

MaxGabriel2• 15 years ago

Oh, that's actually a really cool idea! I use kindle for iPhone/PC/Mac though. I googled around for a few pages and didn't seen anyone doing that, but some of my relatives have a kindle so I could try out theirs sometime.

davidw3• 15 years ago

Or just use Kindle for PC, or Kindle's own 'notes' function...

jonknee• 15 years ago

Isn't the Kindle's DRM is pretty easy to break? You shouldn't have to OCR Kindle books.

runevault6• 15 years ago

Everything I've heard (haven't actually TRIED it, mind you) all the various eBook DRMs are easily crackable.

tghw• 15 years ago

Yes, it is. https://github.com/danielgtaylor/kindledecrypt

gnosis• 15 years ago

I'm also struggling with deciding whether to buy a Kindle.

For me the biggest deal breaker is that it's not an open platform.

As much as I crave a Kindle, I think I'll wait a bit until the technology matures and more open alternatives surface.

patio11• 15 years ago

And the unit economics of Kindle books are so much better than print books to boot. No warehousing, no shipping, (negligible) returns, etc.

Next up on the disruption bus: literary agents and book publishers.

runevault6• 15 years ago

What is funny is agents are trying to become digital publishers to survive the shift.

No, really.

tomkarlo4• 15 years ago

Why not? Given that you don't need a big publishing house, there's still room in the business for folks who are experts in taking a written piece and putting it into the ebook retailers, plus promoting it. A lot of authors want to write, not deal with selling. An agent could do this for a few dozen authors and have a perfectly valid business, with happy customers.

MatthewPhillips• 15 years ago

I wonder how much this is true. I'm not doubting it, per se, but this is always argued when digital vs. analog comes up and I think it's a little presumptuous to say so. Let's consider this example:

1) It takes a big infrastructure to manage an eBook store. Amazon has to be able to deliver books at near instantaneous speeds. They have to deliver magazines and newspapers at a scheduled time (time is critical).

2) Amazon provides 3G delivery to (many of) its customers for free. It's not free for Amazon.

3) Amazon already has built up warehousing/delivery infrastructure and must maintain it because their retail business isn't going away. The cost of delivering a single book is not the same as for Barnes & Noble.

potatolicious• 15 years ago

1) Bigger than having a bunch of warehouses spread all over the world, fully staffed, with logistics and inventories to worry about? It seems unlikely this is smaller than the infrastructure for digital deliveries.

2) "free" in the same way your coffee might be "free" with the purchase of a bagel...

3) True, but let's taked away all the fixed costs (and presume the warehouses would have existed anyways, which may or may not be true). There are still plenty of variable costs - storage space costs money, handling costs labour, and shipping cannot be escaped (and is expensive!)...

ippisl• 15 years ago

|It takes a big infrastructure to manage an eBook store. It also takes as big infrastructure to manage selling physical books. and the size of a book(900kb) is pretty close to the size of it's amazon product page.

|Amazon already has built up warehousing/delivery infrastructure and must maintain it Amazon's retail business shows nice year-on-year growth, and probably can eat the extra capacity left by the book business.

jcampbell1• 15 years ago

> Amazon already has built up warehousing/delivery infrastructure and must maintain it because their retail business isn't going away.

Amazon's retail business is expanding, and is currently building new facilities. Storing and shipping fewer books means less new warehouse space they must build.

davidw3• 15 years ago

> 2) Amazon provides 3G delivery to (many of) its customers for free. It's not free for Amazon.

At least via the KDP, you as the author pay for that in part because it comes out of the price of your book.

ansy• 15 years ago

While that is true, notice Amazon didn't mention the revenue from Kindle books, just the units sold. The majority of those Kindle sales could be from $0.99 bargain books. In a way that would be even better for Amazon because it means the Kindle is complimenting rather than cannibalizing its dead tree sales. Either way, it's a little early to believe Amazon is getting more revenue or profit from Kindle books than from dead tree books.

Also, running the Kindle store has placed a burden on Amazon it didn't have with dead tree sales. If the Kindle Store is anything like the iOS App Store, free books outsell paid books by 6-to-1 or more. So Amazon has to pay the digital distribution costs for a lot of books that bring in zero revenue. That adds up and can chip away the profit it makes on non-free books.

runevault6• 15 years ago

Not just anyone can PUT a book on the Kindle Store for free. You either need to be a big publisher that has a deal with amazon, or they have to CHOOSE to price match free from somewhere else like smashwords. They recently did this with ~300 indie books, but in general the number of freebies is controlled and limited by Amazon

edit: I'd just like to say, getting down voted when stating facts amuses me to no end.

awj• 15 years ago

Considering Kindle books are probably hosted over s3, those costs are relatively marginal. Amazon charges third party S3 usage for storage/transfer in cents/gigabyte, presumably at some appreciable margin. Their revenue from a single 0.99c purchase can probably cover costs related to a copy of that one book, plus another four or five free ones, for a year or more. Even better if they have a single "canonical" copy that is encrypted for your device on the fly at download time.

kjksf• 15 years ago

Consider that Netflix is making a profit providing hour(s) long HD videos for $8 per month.

Let's assume that Amazon isn't less competent in that area, with their AWS expertise and operating large-scale websites since 1995.

Given than I watch much more than 8 hours of video, it's safe to say that the cost of delivering an hour worth of video is less than $1. In fact, I remember reading (can't find a reference) than it's around 5 cents.

Let's assume that hour of video is 1GB and an eBook is 100kB.

Delivering more than 10 thousand ebooks (which is way more than most everyone will ever buy in their lifetime) probably costs Amazon about 5 cents and certainly well below $1 (even if you choose to nitpick and adjust my numbers).

That means that they need to sell three 99 cent books (at 30% profit) to cover their lifetime costs per customer.

Let's stop this talk about costs of delivering digital goods, and especially ebooks. Ebooks are a fraction of the size of music or video files and people download few ebooks once while they stream audio and video for hours and in case of music repeatedly and radio and video streaming services still manage to make a profit after paying huge royalties.

I could probably personally fund the cost of bandwidth to deliver ebooks for the entire population of the US and still afford a latte.

chalgo• 15 years ago

This is just a sales spike due to the new user period. When a user gets a ebook reader for the first time they will buy lots of books to fill the device, including books they already own. Once sales to new users drops off the sales rate will also flatten out. I believe digital will ultimately be the bigger platform in future due to convenience of buying a book and getting it instantly (rather than waiting for the post man).

Tichy• 15 years ago

Not sure if the Kindle works the same way as an iPhone. I can see iPhone users buying lots of apps to show off their phone's capabilities, but ebooks look pretty much alike. So one is enough to show off the capabilities of the reader.

JonLim• 15 years ago

I went the opposite route - started out with buying nothing (pirated my books) and as I started slamming my way through books, I started buying the titles because they were better formatted and I wanted to support my favourite authors.

rmc2• 15 years ago

Considering the Kindle has about 3GB of space, I doubt people will ever really fill it.

andfarm• 15 years ago

Which is enough for two to three thousand thick books. And I believe that, unlike Apple, Amazon will let you delete and redownload books at will.

tomkarlo4• 15 years ago

This is the opposite of my experience: when I got my kindle, I bought one book, started reading it, and when I finished I bought the next. Over time, as I've become more confident that I'm going to use the Kindle long-term, I'm more willing to buy a book when I see it and "add it to the queue" rather than only buying when I need a new one.

The nice thing is that there's really no penalty to waiting until the very last second to buy the next book, even if you're traveling (unless you're actually on the plane.)

AdamGibbins• 15 years ago

and yet we still have VAT on eBooks in the UK (whereas we don't on print books) :(

sdh• 15 years ago

I'm starting to get really annoyed that the price of some ebooks is actually more than the price of the printed book. That is just ridiculous and publishers better check their greed quickly if they want people to keep paying for books.

famousactress• 15 years ago

Interesting, unless I missed it the release doesn't specify how much of this is due to an overall decline in print sales, as opposed to a surge of Kindle ones.

For instance, I've bought no books from Amazon in the past year (very a-typical for me, historically).. but I don't own a Kindle. I've bought some e-books from other outlets for my iPad. So I'm "contributing" to the success Amazon is touting in the release based on the way they're laying it out.

electromagnetic• 15 years ago

I'd take recent talk of a 'decline in paper book sales' with a very big pinch of salt. Book sales spiked, coincidentally, around 2007-08, however year-on-year sales are still going up. Why the coincidental 2007-08 date for one of the biggest spikes in print publishing? Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it had 500% pre-sale figures of Half-Blood Prince.

Despite being a supporter of ebooks, owning a Kindle and reading a lot, I still take Amazon's announcement with a whole bag of salt, because even a fistfull isn't enough for the inaccuracy allowed in their statement.

Firstly to all those not-in-the-know, ebooks have solely been cannibalizing the sales of mass market paperbacks, which is why most major publishers are pricing them around the same price point. Why? Because mass market books are no longer paying off the editorial costs, which is the biggest Publisher cost in producing a book as your typical book passes through the hands of 3 editors and often multiple proof readers and the hands of an actual copy editor.

By January 2011 figures from the AAP, total book (hardcover, paperback, ebook, audio-books and audio-ebooks) were down 1.9% over January 2010. Adult Hardbacks fell 11.3%, paperback (note these are generally the paperback versions of books by known authors) fell by 19.7% and mass market paperbacks (IE new authors) fell 30.9%. Children's Hardbacks stayed the status quo at a fall of 1.9%. Children's paperbacks sell 17.7%.

However, given eBook's 116% growth it likely helped skew the total book sale decline. Yet this isn't impressive yet as it attributes only 8.6% of total book sales. I'll be impressed when eBook sales hit what MP3 sales hit this year, which received little publicity - in that MP3 sales this year hit $5.7 billion. Physical sales hit $5.7 billion. IE MP3 has 50% sale share.

It may be a sign of what's to come, but I expect another 5 years before eBook sales even hit the same as mass market paper backs, and that will only be through massive declines in MMPB sale figures. I'd say about 8 years for trade paperbacks (Stephen King and all your lovely crime novelists) to be matched. However, this isn't really going to be a huge game changer as the bigger the market gets the more important marketing becomes. This will mean, the same as it does today, that the vast majority of eBook sales will be coming from the same authors it is today, just in a bigger proportion.

metaobject• 15 years ago

Since kindle books are cheaper to create, store and deliver, and the fact that these books cost almost the same as the dead tree version, do the authors get a larger cut of the profits when a kindle book is sold compared to when a paper book is sold?

javanix• 15 years ago

It probably depends on who the publisher is. I would imagine smaller publishers would probably give better deals as a way to entice talent, whereas larger publishers like Random House would probably have a much bigger paper-publishing business to support and couldn't afford more generous terms.

tomkarlo4• 15 years ago

Any time you're using your new business to "support" the old business, you're doing it wrong. It should be the other way around - your old cash cow business should be used to support the new business that will take you forward.

petercooper• 15 years ago

Congratulations again Amazon. The Guardian already said "Amazon customers bought more e-books than printed books for the first time on Christmas Day" back in 2009.. :-)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/dec/28/amazon-ebook-...

jacques_chester• 15 years ago

That was for a single day when many users began using the devices for the first time at the same time.

What we're seeing here is a day after day pattern.

codex• 15 years ago

"Thursday’s announcement includes Kindle Singles, which are shorter pieces of writing, like a Fortune magazine article, and “no doubt helped them reach that ratio,” said Michael Norris, a senior analyst for Simba Information."

ez77• 15 years ago

Aside: This looks like an official press release. If so, why doesn't Amazon issue it on the domain amazon.com? It would look more authentic.

Amazon.com Now Selling More Kindle Books Than Print Books

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