In an announcement that will likely generate cheers as well as fears, Amazon.com says that it now sells more Kindle e-books than print books—paperback and hardcover—combined. Since April 1, Amazon says it has sold 105 Kindle books for every 100 print books, soft or hardcover, including print titles that do not have Kindle editions. The figures do not include free Kindle titles.
The Kindle was introduced by Amazon.com in 2007; by 2010 Kindle e-books sales had passed hardcover print titles and by late 2010 Kindle e-book sales had surpassed paperback titles. Amazon introduced the Kindle With Special Offers, a Kindle 3 with ads on its screensaver, for $114, which Amazon says has now become the bestselling Kindle device.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said, “Customers are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books. We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly—we've been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years.”
