On Christmas day Amazon sold more ebooks than print books
When I first read the news I was shocked, here in Italy ebooks aren’t very popular yet. Amazon’s press release states that the Kindle is the most gifted item ever on Amazon.com and on Christmas day ebooks outsold real paper books.
If you think about it, Christmas day might be too late to shop for a gift in a crowded bookstore, while it’s perfect timing for downloading an ebook or two on your newly received ereader.
Print books will still outsell ebooks in 2010, however more and more people are quickly getting used to reading on E ink screens, ereader prices are dropping and Google Books is playing its part in the process.
It’s the end of the Book as we know it
I have an encyclopedia at home, high on a shelf, it’s been there for the last decade I guess. It makes a beautiful piece of furniture though. Dictionaries suffered the same fate, which is happening to manuals, handbooks, all replaced by their online counterparts. The future is called media digitisation and it’s happening now.
A couple of weeks ago Sony launched a Digital Comics Service for the PSP, that enables the download of Marvel comics on a wi-fi connection. Soon print books, magazines and newspapers could become vintage items for nostalgic collectors.
I don’t think that mainstream consumers will adopt ebook readers soon, but as Seth Godin points out, it’s not the people who buy a couple of books a year that matter, but the heavy users who read tens or hundred of books are already determining a market shift.
Book lovers on aNobii and other social bookshelf sites have been busy on “ebook vs. real book” forum discussions and users opposing the new technology begin to sound like vinyl record collectors.
Nothing is going to change for them in the end, aNobii already makes book list importing from Amazon or Google Library very convenient. Traditional book publishers will probably see their profit margin increase thanks to digital books. No need to worry about it then, the future looks bright, unless you are working in a bookstore.
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