Growth of eBooks in 2010

Here are some insights about the eBooks growth in 2010, sales almost doubled.

A recent report (December 2010) from the Association of American Publishers stated that eBooks sales grew 193% between January and August 2010. In dollar terms, eBook sales for January to August were up from $89.8 million in 2009 to $263 million in 2010.

What's more, according to the Association of American Publishers, eBooks now (December 2010) make up 9.03% of total consumer book sales - compared to 3.31% at the close of 2009.

It's difficult to get sales data from the eReader vendors. However Amazon was vocal throughout 2010 on the overall trends.

In January (2010) Amazon announced that it was selling 6 Kindle eBooks for every 10 physical books, when both editions are available. Later, in October, Amazon announced that sales of Kindle eBooks had passed sales of hardcover books. Specifically, over the three months prior to October, Amazon said that it had sold 143 Kindle books for every 100 hardcover books.

At the end of October (2010) Amazon announced that for its top 10 best-selling books, customers bought the Kindle edition twice as often as the print copy. According to Amazon's VP for Kindle, Steve Kessel, Kindle eBook sales also topped print sales of hardcovers and paperbacks for its top 25, top 100 and top 1,000 bestsellers.

Thus, this growth was fueled by intense competition amongst eReader manufacturers over 2010. Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble Nook and others attempted to undercut each other throughout the year. Further, the Ipad arrived in 2010 and added to the choices for eBook consumers.

Source : Richard MacManus, December 2010, www.readwriteweb.com