Amazon.com has announced that sales of e-books compatible with its digital reader Kindle, have outstripped hardcover book sales in recent months. A statement released by the online store says that, in the last three months, the company has sold 143 Kindle compatible e-books for every 100 hardcover books sold on the site. "We've reached a tipping point with the new price of Kindle - the growth rate of Kindle device unit sales has tripled since we lowered the price from $US259 to $US189," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com.
"In addition, even while our hardcover sales continue to grow, the Kindle format has now overtaken the hardcover format. Amazon.com customers now purchase more Kindle books than hardcover books - astonishing when you consider that we've been selling hardcover books for 15 years, and Kindle books for 33 months." The recent drop in price of the Kindle reader comes in response to increasing competition from similar devices such as Apple’s iPad and Barnes & Noble’s Nook reader.
