Amazon Kindle e-book downloads outsell paperbacks

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by Catlady

Customer loyalty usually start out as customer satisfaction, though, and there's nothing necessarily illogical about that. I like certain stores and brands because they've served me well in the past, so I'm more likely to continue with them out of habit unless something shakes my perception.

Agreed, but we both know that there are fanboys and the like, who are blind to problems.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

Because quite a few people here are very big fans of Amazon - so much so that they have an "Amazon can do no wrong so how dare you comment" attitude. I've been burned before - and I've watched quite a few other get sacrificed to the Amazon flame. I enjoy debate - which is why I frequent this site - but I've noticed any Amazon debate quickly descends into an "us against them" argument.

In my experience, most fans of Amazon are restrained until they (the users, not Amazon itself) are attacked as "Kindlebots" or "Kool-Aid Drinkers," are told that we get "wide and dreamy eyed" when we read an Amazon press release, and are accused of being "not savvy" and having done "no research" because we bough a Kindle. And these attacks are just from the past month.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

In my experience, most fans of Amazon are restrained until they (the users, not Amazon itself) are attacked as "Kindlebots" or "Kool-Aid Drinkers," are told that we get "wide and dreamy eyed" when we read an Amazon press release, and are accused of being "not savvy" and having done "no research" because we bough a Kindle. And these attacks are just from the past month.

Hmmm, that has not been my experience. I am assuming this started prior to my joining this site. I can only comment on what I have witnessed.

Not to say that the name calling has not occurred - but I have seen a lot more "us vs them" that did not start with name calling.

[avantman42]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

I'm sorry. I tend to get a little defensive when speaking about Amazon here.

Apology accepted, and I'm sorry that my post made you defensive.

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

I would say it is almost the same - except that Amazon does not allow others to use the .awz (.azw?) format. If the format was(is?) available for use, I would expect Tesco to carry that format for my (or rather your) use. I don't like the fact that Amazon does not make their format available for use for library lending. I don't own a kindle so I am unfamiliar with the availability of the format outside of Amazon's door.

Fair enough. Personally, I think the real problem is the DRM. The fact that .azw is a proprietory format is a bad thing, but DRM is the thing that I really dislike. One of the reasons I bought a Kindle is that I can't run ADE on Linux, and all my computers are Linux. My work laptop dual-boots Windows XP, but I only use Windows on the very rare occasion that I absolutely have to, and I didn't want to have to boot Windows just to get a book onto my e-reader. Just as some people say that Amazon refuse to sell them e-books because they don't have a Kindle, I could say that Kobo, WHSmiths, Waterstones et al refuse to sell me books because I don't use Mac or Windows.

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

Hmmm, that has not been my experience. I am assuming this started prior to my joining this site. I can only comment on what I have witnessed.

Not to say that the name calling has not occurred - but I have seen a lot more "us vs them" that did not start with name calling.

I can't honestly say which group is more guilty, but it can be very annoying when people assume that I'm an Amazon fan-boy because I have a Kindle, and that I only bought it because I saw the TV advert, not because it was the best e-reader for me. In all honesty, what I find most frustrating about it is that it makes it very difficult to have a reasonable debate because people on both sides get very defensive very quickly.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

I would say it is almost the same - except that Amazon does not allow others to use the .awz (.azw?) format. If the format was(is?) available for use, I would expect Tesco to carry that format for my (or rather your) use. I don't like the fact that Amazon does not make their format available for use for library lending. I don't own a kindle so I am unfamiliar with the availability of the format outside of Amazon's door.

Amazon's shunning of lending libraries is the only serious mistake they have made since re-entering the ebook business with the Kindle. If they had not done this, lending libraries would probably only be providing MOBI ebooks and Kindle would be 95+% of the entire English language ebook market. Instead, lending libraries have largely dropped MOBI for ePub and there is enough market share left to support several ePub-based reading devices.

It is true that only the Kindle store has Kindle DRM, but any publisher or bookstore is free to sell DRM-free MOBI ebooks for the Kindle (MOBI and AZW are essentially the same). In essence, Amazon's strategy only works because publishers are fixated on DRM.

[chamekke]

I totally agree about Amazon's lending-library gaffe. It's probably cost them hugely in sales, and has seriously handicapped its customers.

On the other hand, my library has ~1,500 ebooks, and although I browse the listings regularly, I have yet to see one I'd actually want to borrow (why so much John Grisham and Nevil Shute???). That was what killed any misgivings I had in not buying a Sony.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by chamekke

I totally agree about Amazon's lending-library gaffe. It's probably cost them hugely in sales, and has seriously handicapped its customers.

I very much doubt that it's "cost them hugely in sales". They are selling every Kindle they can make, and remember that Amazon are not particularly in the business of selling Kindles, but selling eBooks. The Kindle is just a tool by which they attract business to their bookstore; Amazon don't care whether you read your Kindle books on a Kindle, a PC, a Mac, an iPhone or jPad, an Android phone or tablet, a Blackberry, or whatever. They just want to sell you books.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

I've never met a such a huge group of people who feel that they only deserve what someone is willing to give them. I deserve more - so I demand more.

No, you don't 'deserve' it, that implies some sort of entitlement.
You might want it, and it is completely sensible to agitate and try to convince Amazon to do what you want, but they are under no obligation to accommodate you.

[SensualPoet]

There's generally a reason threads flame up and that's because one or two posters insist on using polarizing, taunting language and then take perfectly rational replies as personal attacks. Meanwhile, the rest of us can enjoy the genuine debate that still manages to be engaged in and smile from the sidelines at the antics of the few.

To ePub or not? Is that Amazon's key question?

Amazon makes choices to sell this product or that; so do Kobo, Sony, B&N and others. No one sells every possible good imaginable ... not even Amazon, although they sell more items than possibly any other vendor on earth. A vendor like BooksOnBoard could sell more titles, more formats if they chose to seek out and sign the deals with more suppliers. It would cost capital but they could do it if their owners/shareholders felt it in their interest.

It is not in Amazon's best interest to sell ePub because it messes up the customer purchase flow and after sales support. By selling ONE format, everything is seamless for those customers who choose to do business with them and use the Kindle platform on a Kindle and other devices. At some point, Amazon might add ePub as a supported format but continue to decline to add Adobe DRM. But they'd still only need to actually sell Kindle format ebooks.

Amazon, no doubt, has had lengthy conversations with Overdrive, the premium ebook supplier to libraries, and the two companies have not been able to come to an acceptable set of terms in order to do business. I suspect Amazon would, in fact, love to be in the library space since it would erase a core differentiator between it and Kobo and other DRM ePub e-readers. I am reasonably certain that more than one executive under Jeff Bezos is charged with "fixing" that problem in 2011.

Amazon, btw, would make money selling to Overdrive, not to libraries. I'd expect most libraries do not buy books from Amazon but buy direct from publishers or middle-men jobbers -- so it's not a market Amazon is missing out on. Ultimately, Amazon's vested interest is in end-users, not in other book distributors such as libraries.

Finally, to return to the OP: regardless of one's view, Amazon is doing something rather well if, by the end of 2010, with e-readers in something under 15% of households, they are already selling more Kindle e-books than paperbacks.

[starrigger]

An interesting puzzle to me is the fact that for me and for many of my colleagues (meaning authors putting up their backlist), Barnes and Noble is proving to be a much more fertile ground than Amazon. Many of us seem to consistently sell a lot more books in the Nook store than the Kindle store. And we're all puzzled as to why.

I wonder if it's that there are a lot more new Nooks out there waiting to be filled up--or maybe that there's just more demand (at least in our audience) for epub books over awz.

[Blue Tyson]

Or you appeal more to concentrated American readers who are Barnes and Noble fans, as opposed to a more cosmopolitan crowd elsewhere?

Different search engines I suppose, too.

[MrsJoseph]

I would like to see a more open system for all devices, hopefully with only one format. Lacking that, I wonder if it would be possible to get hard numbers and statics as to what is selling best (where and how). I know kindle does well - so does B&N nook. Kobo is not sure and Sony? No matter how much I've been over the 950 - I have no real idea as to the quality of the store or the experience.

A lot of people here speak of the difficulties of using dedicated devices with tech and text books. As a fantasy reader I often miss flipping back to study maps and the cast of characters/dictionary. I'm starting to wonder if there is a difference in major functionality and/or use between the formats and if certain formats work better for certain uses or types of books.


Not sure if I'm explaining myself well -

[Nathanael]

Originally Posted by Andrew H.

What is annoying - and the context in which I was responding - is the repeated claim that epub is the "standard" format

Epub is the standard because it is the standard of the IDPF.

--Nathanael

[Nathanael]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

Amazon is doing something rather well if, by the end of 2010, with e-readers in something under 15% of households, they are already selling more Kindle e-books than paperbacks.

It's an interesting question which invites great speculation, but Amazon, true to character, withholds any real information which might shed light on the answer.

What it sounds like to me is that the market might be polarizing. Of course, Amazon's customer base is, by definition, more tech savvy than the general population; those with ereaders likely even more so. So in some respect it hardly seems surprising that they would be quicker to make the switch. What that has to say about the state of ebooks in general is, to my mind, not necessarily reflected in Amazon's numbers.

What would amaze me more is if a brick-and-mortar store were to start seeing a significant portion of e-business.

Nathanael

[speedlever]

Originally Posted by Nathanael

Epub is the standard because it is the standard of the IDPF.

--Nathanael

I'm curious. Are more ebooks available in epub than mobi (Amazon)? Are more books sold in epub than mobi?

Do such statistics exist?