eBooks … By the Numbers

E-book Sales: First-half 2010 Sales Top Previous Years' Year-end Figures

Year-to-date sales (through June) of U.S. trade e-books sold through wholesale channels show an increase of more than 204 percent (totaling $179.7 million) over sales through June 2009, according to recently released statistics from the Association of American Publishers (AAP), compiled in conjunction with the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF). Sales for the first half of 2010 exceed total-year sales for any previous year for which trade e-book sales statistics were recorded.

For the month of June, trade e-book sales were $29.8 million, a 119-percent increase over June 2009 ($13.6 million).

The complete statistics, historical data and information about the numbers can be viewed at: http://www.IDPF.org/doc_library/industrystats.htm

Editor's Note: This data does not include library, educational or professional electronic sales. The AAP and IDPF encourage trade publishers to share their e-book sales figures with the AAP for the trade e-books sales tracking program. To submit your data to the AAP, contact: Richard Barclay, Management Practice Inc., at RBarclay@MPIWeb.com.

Puttin' on the Gloves: Kindle 
vs. iPad

"'Early evidence suggests some Kindle owners are buying iPads and beginning to shift a portion of e-book purchases to Apple's iBookstore,' writes Marianne Wolk, an analyst at the Susquehanna International Group, in a report to clients at the end of June," according to an Aug. 7 article, "E-Book Wars: The Specialist vs. the Multitasker," in The New York Times.

According to The Times, "Wolk says, iPad users 'are buying a lot more books than we expected, with 5 million e-book downloads in the first 65 days, roughly 2.5 per device,' comparable to the estimate of three books per Kindle for the quarter."

The article reports that Apple has sold 3.3 million iPads since its introduction in April, while Amazon continues to conceal its Kindle 
sales figures.