Kindle books outselling paper books by 2 to 1, reports Amazon

Amazon customers are buying Kindle digital versions of the top 10 best-selling books more than twice as often as print copies, the online retail giant said Monday.

“Kindle books are also outselling print books for the top 25, 100, and 1,000 bestsellers — it’s across the board,” said Steve Kessel, senior vice president of Amazon Kindle.

“This is remarkable when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover and paperback books for 15 years, and Kindle books for just 36 months,” Kessel said in a statement.

Amazon announced in July that sales of electronic books for the Kindle have overtaken hardcover book sales.

Kessel said that “for the top 10 best-selling books on Amazon.com, customers are choosing Kindle books over hardcover and paperback books combined at a rate of greater than two to one.”

Amazon said it sold more than three times as many Kindle books in the first nine months of this year as in the first nine months of 2009.

Amazon does not release actual sales figures for the Kindle but the company said the latest generation Kindles introduced in July are the fastest-selling Kindles yet and the best-selling products on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

“It’s still October and we’ve already sold more Kindle devices since launch than we did during the entire fourth quarter of last year — astonishing because the fourth quarter is the busiest time of year on Amazon,” Kessel said.

“It’s clear that this is going to be the biggest holiday for Kindle yet by far,” he said.

Amazon unveiled two new versions of its Kindle electronic reader in late July, including one that sells for 139 dollars, its lowest price yet.

Amazon cut the price of the Kindle and revamped the line in the face of a threat in the e-reader market from Apple’s iPad and companies like Sony and bookstore Barnes & Noble, which also offer e-readers. –AFP