According to a report from the Association of American Publishers (AAP), February 2011 sales of e-books have exceeded paperbacks.
E-books have now officially become the most preferred format of books for U.S. readers.
The recent report shows that revenue from e-book sales was at $90.3 million in February, which is an increase of 202 percent compared to a year ago. AAP announced that for the first time e-books had become top “among all categories of trade publishing.”
Amazon.com Inc., the biggest bookseller on the Internet, had already said that its own e-book sales outsold paperbacks in January, thanks to Kindle being the No. 1 selling product at the Internet retailer.
Commentators had attributed such results in part to the success of the Kindle. The e-book reader industry is now inevitably driving sales trends upward, with Barnes & Noble creating a competing Nook e-book reader, and Apple’s iPad tablet computer also serving as a capable e-book reader, in addition to its many other uses.
Tom Allen, president and chief executive officer of AAP said, “The February results reflect two core facts: people love books and publishers actively serve readers wherever they are,” in an interview with the Christian Science Monitor.
Despite the popularity of e-books, there has also been some backlash from consumers, not unlike that experienced by the music industry at the infancy of MP3s. Some consumers complain that e-book prices are still too high, and some vendors attached DRM (digital rights management) software to the e-books sold digitally.
AAP is the industry association of book publishers.
E-books have now officially become the most preferred format of books for U.S. readers.
The recent report shows that revenue from e-book sales was at $90.3 million in February, which is an increase of 202 percent compared to a year ago. AAP announced that for the first time e-books had become top “among all categories of trade publishing.”
Amazon.com Inc., the biggest bookseller on the Internet, had already said that its own e-book sales outsold paperbacks in January, thanks to Kindle being the No. 1 selling product at the Internet retailer.
Commentators had attributed such results in part to the success of the Kindle. The e-book reader industry is now inevitably driving sales trends upward, with Barnes & Noble creating a competing Nook e-book reader, and Apple’s iPad tablet computer also serving as a capable e-book reader, in addition to its many other uses.
Tom Allen, president and chief executive officer of AAP said, “The February results reflect two core facts: people love books and publishers actively serve readers wherever they are,” in an interview with the Christian Science Monitor.
Despite the popularity of e-books, there has also been some backlash from consumers, not unlike that experienced by the music industry at the infancy of MP3s. Some consumers complain that e-book prices are still too high, and some vendors attached DRM (digital rights management) software to the e-books sold digitally.
AAP is the industry association of book publishers.
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