Publishers Week: Amazon Ups Its Edge

[Maggie Leung]

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...-its-edge.html

[Fbone]

Interesting article.

I didn't understand the second chart.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by Fbone

I didn't understand the second chart.

As I understand it, it compares the purchases of Amazon customers before and after they got Kindles. So presumably those customers bought Kindle books even before they bought Kindles, in which case they would've read Kindle books on computer, tablet, cell phone or iPod Touch, I'm guessing.

[fjtorres]

The second chart seems to show that, for now, the market for Kindle ebooks is *not* cannibalizing print book sales, but rather a separate growth area. Kindle ebook buyers are, as a group, still buying as many print books as before and also buying significant amounts of ebooks. That is in line with Amazon's recent report that ebook unit sales exceeded paperback sales despite the increase of paperback sales.

Impressive, really.

So is the Kindle App's 40% share of ebook purchases on the iPad.
The rest of the numbers are about right, though I'm surprised to see Apple's share at 29% despite their limited catalog. I never expected them to be an outright failure but I thought they'd have to grow their catalog significantly to get much above 20%.

Looks like ebook competition is going to be nice and healthy for the forseeable future.
Yay!

[PrincessV]

Just my thoughts, based on my purchases, on this part:

"According to the Codex survey, bookstores remain, by far, the most important way book buyers learn about new books: 28% of all book buyers said they learned about the last book they bought by browsing in a bookstore or through a bookstore display, while 14.5% were discovered through a friend's recommendation."

Since having an ereader since 2009, most all of my "last" purchases have NOT been as a result of browsing a bookstore. In fact, most all of my ebook purchases have been a result of the on-stores, email notifications, different forums, then a friend's recommendation. I've also discovered new authors (to me) because of the same avenues I just mentioned. My visits to an actual bookstore has greatly reduced since buying an ereader!

[SensualPoet]

The article states Apple sold 15 million iPads in 2010, three times the number of Kindles sold in three years. More recent data suggests Amazon actually sold 7 to 8 million Kindles in 2010 -- half as many as Apple sold iPads. In addition, Barnes and Noble sold "millions" of Nooks and both Kobo and Sony continued as leading ereader brands. I make the point to underscore that, while Apple's iPad revolution is nothing short of extraordinary (only Apple was able to find the secret sauce to make tablets exciting), it is within reach to suggest a 1 for 1 sales ratio between ereaders and iPads, at least in 2010.

The second point never makes it into these surveys but some of us at Mobileread can attest to: once you own a Kindle (Nook, Kobo, etc), what's the ratio of ebook to print books you purchase? For many of us, print book purchases have slid to close to zero, at least where an ebook is available.

And a third point still to be teased out from the surveys: are there many folks buying ebooks today who were low volume print book buyers in the past? This segment represents absolute growth in the book industry and I am also certain there are some of us here who fit that metric. I certainly do: I purchased at least 30+ ebooks in 2010 which is 29+ more than the print books I purchased in 2009. In other words, ereaders brought me back to the world of book buying.

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

... though I'm surprised to see Apple's share at 29% despite their limited catalog. I never expected them to be an outright failure but I thought they'd have to grow their catalog significantly to get much above 20%.

Looks like ebook competition is going to be nice and healthy for the forseeable future.
Yay!

I'm surprised by the iBook percentage, too. I don't buy iBooks because I don't want to be tethered to Apple hardware. I guess that's not a concern for a good number of book buyers.

Competition is good for consumers, though, so I'm with you on the "Yah"!

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

The article states Apple sold 15 million iPads in 2010, three times the number of Kindles sold in three years. More recent data suggests Amazon actually sold 7 to 8 million Kindles in 2010 -- half as many as Apple sold iPads. In addition, Barnes and Noble sold "millions" of Nooks and both Kobo and Sony continued as leading ereader brands. I make the point to underscore that, while Apple's iPad revolution is nothing short of extraordinary (only Apple was able to find the secret sauce to make tablets exciting), it is within reach to suggest a 1 for 1 sales ratio between ereaders and iPads, at least in 2010.

I can't speak for others, but tablets excited me long before iPad came along. For my needs, Apple just happened to make the first reliable, convenient tablet. It takes reliable, user-friendly hardware and software to make tablets useful for me.

Even if iPad hadn't met my needs, I would've been thrilled to see it succeed, because it has fired up tablet development among competitors. About time, in my book.

I'm looking forward to Amazon unveiling its Android app marketplace, as has been announced, but without a set date. Amazon says it will screen and test Android apps, and it won't sell apps that don't meet its standards for reliability and online security. For me, that type of quality control is key to my switching to Android or any other tablet platform. I know many people dislike Apple's control of hardware and software, but that's they key thing that made me buy an iPad. Because of those controls, iPad is reliable for the main things I want to do on a tablet. I see lots of potential in that direction with Amazon's app marketplace. Competition, yeah.