Retail News South Africa

E-book sales beat print sales at Amazon

According to Amazon.com, its customers bought more electronic books than hard copy books on Christmas Day the company said in a statement on Saturday 27 December 2009. It also said that its e-book reader, the Kindle, “has become the most gifted item in Amazon's history.”

The Kindle online store boasts a library of 390 000 digitised books, which can also be read on Apple iPhone or iPod Touch devices.

Amazon has not released figures for Kindle sales, but Forrester Research, a US-based independent technology and market research company, estimated in October that the Kindle has a nearly 60% share of the US market, followed by the Sony Reader with 35%.

The Nook, a new device sold by US bookstore giant Barnes & Noble, is also competing with the Kindle.
The company said it sold all of its Nooks one month before Christmas, and that the next shipment will not be available until early January.

More online at www.livemint.com/2009/12/27102112/Amazon-Christmas-day-ebook-sa.html.

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