This month Amazon.com announced that it had sold more Kindle books than print books marking a first in Amazon’s successful book sales history. As you may know, the bookseller began selling its books in 1995 and in 2007 introduced their reading device, Kindle, on a gamble that E-Books might become popular at some point. By July 2010, Amazon reported that Kindle book sales had surpassed hardcover book sales, and six months later, Kindle books overtook paperback books to become the most popular form on Amazon.com. Together, Kindle now outsells all print books including hardcover and paperback combined.
What’s driving E-Books Anyway?
Reason #1: Easier to purchase. Business and consumers want to reach out and acquire information when they need it. It’s a whole lot easier to go online and purchase an E-Book than to get into your automobile and drive to a bookstore.
Reason #2: E-Books don’t chop down trees. As everyone becomes more ecologically minded saving our precious resources becomes more important. It’s nice to hold a book in your hand, but it’s also nice to hold a Kindle or iPad in your hand and read a book!
Reason #3: It’s easier to keep an E-Book with you. If you’re an avid reader you might have 1 to 5 books you are currently in the process of reading. E-Books allow you to ‘carry them’ with you without the bulk printed books bring.
Reason #4: You can make digital notes and bookmark them. It’s very nice to be able to highlight a passage or make a note in an E-Book knowing that you can always go back and review your highlights and notes quickly and easily. With printed books dog-earing has long been a way to mark a spot for favorite passages but it does break down the book’s appearance. Not so with E-Books.
Reason #5: You can search them and get instant results. With an E-Book you can quickly search by word or phrase to secure the specific book section that you remembered but couldn’t recall its location.
I’m sure there are many other practical advantages to E-Books than are itemized here. If you think of some be sure and share them!
Having watched the progression of print to digital to online during the past 25 years it’s become fairly obvious that digital has found its prominent place in both business and consumer markets and that is not going to change.