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Top Trends of 2010 - Growth of eBooks & eReaders [21Nov10]
Those who read many more than the average number of books are much more likely to by these gadgets. Of course there are also Audiobooks… Strange that Apple’s iTunes can’t handle them correctly.
eBook sales almost doubled over 2010 and now make up 9% of total consumer book sales, according to the Association of American Publishers. 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.
eBooks started to take off in 2009, but in 2010 things really heated up. Speaking as a consumer who has just finished reading Jonathan Franzen’s nearly 600-page novel Freedom on my iPad’s Kindle app, I can attest that eBooks are here to stay! Let’s look back then at a busy year in the eReader and eBook market.
The Great eReader Price War of 2010
At the end of last year, Amazon was selling its basic Kindle for $259. In June of 2010, Barnes & Noble slashed the price of its Nook eReader to $199. Amazon immediately responded by dropping the price of the simplest Kindle to $189. In July, Sony dropped the price of its eReader from $169 to $149. The Nook then went down to $149 and Amazon announced that its new Kindle Wi-Fi, eventually released in August, would retail for $139.
The eReader price war in turn fueled demand for eBooks. During the first nine months of 2010, market leader Amazon sold three times as many Kindle books than during the same time period in 2009.
eBook Sales Nearly Double, Now 9% of Total Consumer Books
