Comments on: The rise of e-books: IDPF reports November e-book sales up 108 percent—and here’s some analysis http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/23/the-rise-of-e-books-idpf-reports-e-book-sales-up-108-percent-and-heres-some-analysis/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:33:52 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: pond http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/23/the-rise-of-e-books-idpf-reports-e-book-sales-up-108-percent-and-heres-some-analysis/comment-page-1/#comment-1006802 pond Sun, 25 Jan 2009 01:56:59 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/2009/01/23/the-rise-of-e-books-idpf-reports-e-book-sales-up-108-percent-and-heres-some-analysis/#comment-1006802 This is good news. I only wish they had been a little more detailed. I want to see the figures broken down by format. And how much of this is Kindle sales? Is any of it Kindle? My guess is that if this includes Kindle, Kindle editions are 90% of these totals, and 90+% of the growth. And if this does not include Kindle, the real market is enormously bigger than the figures suggest. Also of note is that these figures cover USA only, which is the only (?) country where Kindle has been introduced (and has been unavailable for long stretches). So if these figures include Kindle, I'd like to see comparable figures for a non-Kindle country. Are ebooks taking off where there is no Kindle? Beyond Kindle, there's the iPhone, of course. Also it's interesting to talk in terms of 'wholesale' figures for electronic files. The concept of 'wholesale' makes any real figures guesswork, especially if (a) these figures include Kindle editions and (b) Amazon is subsidizing the $9.99 price of some popular Kindle editions, as was speculated in the Newsweek article introducing the Kindle. This is good news. I only wish they had been a little more detailed. I want to see the figures broken down by format. And how much of this is Kindle sales? Is any of it Kindle?

My guess is that if this includes Kindle, Kindle editions are 90% of these totals, and 90+% of the growth. And if this does not include Kindle, the real market is enormously bigger than the figures suggest.

Also of note is that these figures cover USA only, which is the only (?) country where Kindle has been introduced (and has been unavailable for long stretches). So if these figures include Kindle, I’d like to see comparable figures for a non-Kindle country. Are ebooks taking off where there is no Kindle?

Beyond Kindle, there’s the iPhone, of course.

Also it’s interesting to talk in terms of ‘wholesale’ figures for electronic files. The concept of ‘wholesale’ makes any real figures guesswork, especially if (a) these figures include Kindle editions and (b) Amazon is subsidizing the $9.99 price of some popular Kindle editions, as was speculated in the Newsweek article introducing the Kindle.

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