Kindle Sales Triple, Kindle eBooks Finally Outselling Hardcover Versions

A few weeks ago we saw the eBook wars begin when Barnes & Noble announced the WiFi Nook and dropped the price of the standard Nook from $259 to $199.  Amazon responded by dropping the Kindle 2 from $259 to $189.  Obviously there’s a bit of a race to the bottom, at least in terms of pricing.  It looks like that race is helping Amazon quite a bit in sales.

Without releasing exact sales numbers, Amazon has announced that since the price drop, Kindle eReader sales have tripled.  It looks like all that was holding potential buyers back from  buying a Kindle was a price drop of just $70.  It dips below the mental barrier of $200, and is almost in impulse buy territory in terms of gadgets.  That means there’s a lot of people out there now who are willing to buy eBooks, perhaps above buying physical books. {Engadget}

That brings up Amazon’s next point: for the past three months Kindle eBook sales have outpaced hardcover book sales.  That’s all Kindle books as compared to all hardcover books, even those without Kindle versions.  For those months for every 100 hardcover books sold, 143 Kindle books were sold.  For just the past month it’s 9 Kindle books for every 2 hardcover books.  Amazon calls this a “tipping point,” and it certainly seems true.

Important, however, is that Kindle books aren’t necessarily sold only for those with the Kindle eReader.  With the sales of the iPad, the iPhone 4, and the new Android Kindle app, Amazon is proving that eBooks are quite popular.  With 160,000 Android phones being sold each day {TechCrunch}, and the popular ones selling out on the first day {eWeek}, the great size of the iPad for reading, and the beautiful text on the iPhone 4s Retina Display, Amazon stands to sell a lot more Kindle books for quite some time.  Now if only someone could convince all publishers to put out eBooks.