Kindle $189 Price Kindles eBook Sales @ Amazon 1.43 eBooks to 1 Hardback

Amazon.com released Kindle data and sales are kindling a massive growth in eBooks. Over the past three months, for every 100 hardcover books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 143 Kindle books.  Over the past month, for every 100 hardcover books

• Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 180 Kindle books.  Amazon sold more than 3x as many Kindle books in the first half of 2010 as in the first half of 2009.
• The Association of American Publishers’ latest data reports that e-book sales grew 163 percent in the month of May and 207 percent year-to-date through May.  Kindle book sales in May and year-to-date through May exceeded those growth rates.
•  On July 6, Hachette announced that James Patterson had sold 1.14 million e-books to date.  Of those, 867,881 were Kindle books.
•  Five authors-Charlaine Harris, Stieg Larsson, Stephenie Meyer, James Patterson, and Nora Roberts-have each sold more than 500,000 Kindle books.

“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 $259 to $189,” 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.”

Amazon claims readers are responding to Kindle’s uncompromising approach to the reading experience.  Weighing 10.2 ounces, Kindle can be held comfortably in one hand for hours, has an e-ink display that is easy on the eyes even in bright daylight, has two weeks of battery life, lets you buy your books once and read them everywhere-on your Kindle, Kindle DX, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry, and Android-based devices-and has free 3G wireless with no monthly fees or annual contracts-all at a $189 price.