eBooks, Digital Publishing Outsell Hardback and Paper Books
The digital publishing revolution has formally arrived, with eBook sales having topped paperback and hardcover book sales for the first time as of February.
Buoyed by the growing popularity of eReaders and tablet PCs including the Kindle, Nook and iPad, digital book sales reached $90.3 million, up 202 percent over February 2010, according to the Association of American Publishers. As CNN Money points out, these findings may contain some inaccuracies, though, as the data were supplied by publishers rather than retailers – not all of whom submit sales numbers. Results may also be higher than normal due to post-holiday gift spending.
Findings come on the heels of a January announcement by Amazon.com that Kindle eBook sales had surpassed paperbacks. Taken together, these reports would appear to indicate an increasingly bright future for virtual libraries and online newsstands, courtesy of an all but certain impending boom that’s yet to come for smartphone and slate computer sales.