Amazon ebook sales pull ahead of traditional books
TEXT OF INTERVIEW
Bill Radke: The big online retailer Amazon yesterday announced that sales of digital books are pulling ahead of the old paper-style information transfer devices. Here to talk about it live is Marketplace’s John Dimsdale. Good morning, John.
John Dimsdale: Good morning, Bill.
Radke: So we’ve been hearing more and more about ebook readers. What’s this latest tidbit?
Dimsdale: Well Amazon says for every 100 hardcover books out the door over the past three months, it sold 143 books electronically. Now Amazon is famously very secretive about the exact numbers of Kindles and the ebooks that it sells. But faced with all the headlines of how Apple’s iPads are taking over the market, Amazon did release a few tantalizing tidbits about what’s going on in the ebook industry. And you know, there’s a price war going on right now among ebook readers, and Kindle sales tripled when the price dropped below $200.
Radke: And why are these book and ebook lines crossing now?
Dimsdale: Well, in an word, competition. Not only are there iPads and Kindles, but several other ebook readers are either on the market now or planning to come to market in the near future.
Radke: So are people buying ebooks instead of hardcover books, or are they just buying more books?
Dimsdale: Well, that’s not clear. Traditional book sales are also increasing. Amazon’s comparison is only between hardbound books and ebooks. It doesn’t take into account sales of much more popular paperback books. The experts say they need several more months of data to know whether ebooks are cutting into the popularity of traditional books.
Radke: OK. Marketplace’s John Dimsdale joining us. Thanks, John.
Dimsdale: Thanks, Bill.
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