Last July Amazon's sales of Kindle editions in the US overtook the sales of books in hardback format; in January 2011 it was selling more Kindle books than paperback books and now Kindle book sales exceed those for all print editions, hardback and paperback, even taking into account titles for which no Kindle edition is available. Free Kindle books are excluded and if included would make the number even higher.

According to Amazon's founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos: 

"Customers are now choosing Kindle books more often than print books. We had high hopes that this would happen eventually, but we never imagined it would happen this quickly - we've been selling print books for 15 years and Kindle books for less than four years."

Bezos also commented on the fact that the recently introduced Kindle with Special Offers has become the bestselling member of the Kindle family.

Recent milestones for Kindle include:

• Since April 1, for every 100 print books Amazon.com has sold, it has sold 105 Kindle books.
• So far in 2011, the growth of Kindle book sales, combined with the continued growth in Amazon's print book sales, have resulted in the fastest year-over-year growth rate for Amazon's U.S. books business, in both units and dollars, in over 10 years.
• In the five weeks since its introduction, Kindle with Special Offers for only $114 is already the bestselling member of the Kindle family in the U.S.
• Amazon has sold more than three times as many Kindle books so far in 2011 as it did during the same period in 2010.
• Less than one year after introducing the UK Kindle Store, Amazon.co.uk is now selling more Kindle books than hardcover books, even as hardcover sales continue to grow. Since April 1, Amazon.co.uk customers are purchasing Kindle books over hardcover books at a rate of more than 2 to 1.

Related articles:

Kindle outsells hardbacks

Kindle books overtake paperbacks

Kindle with ads - is that a good bargain?

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