Ebook Sales Beating Print 2-to-1 At Amazon; Kindle 3s Selling Furiously

Amazon's says top-of-the-list ebooks are outselling print books 2 to 1 in the Amazon store, and that the company is selling new generation Kindle 3 ebook readers faster than they've ever sold Kindles before.

With an estimated 1 in 5 of Amazon's ebook sales coming from readers who do not own a Kindle, but do buy via their iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Android and/or computer, Planet iPad readers are part of Amazon's success story these days.

Nor have ebook sales hurt print book sales on Amazon, where both are growing, says the company it its press release.

“It's clear that this is going to be the biggest holiday for Kindle yet—by far,” according to Steve Kessel, Senior VP for Amazon Kindle.

Whether you compare the Top 10 Amazon bestsellers, or the Top 50, or Top 100, Amazon says the ebook version of each is outstripping the print version in sales.

The outlook for Fourth Quarter sales for Amazon is looking tremendous, the company's announcement indicates. October through December is the hottest selling time for Amazon and most retailers, yet the relatively “slower” August-to-October period this year saw more Kindle 3 new generation ebook readers sold than last year's hot end-of-year months.

Amazon says its tripled its sales of ebooks themselves in the first 9 months of 2010, compared to the same period in 2009.

Here are the glad tidings in the official release:

SEATTLE, Oct 25, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- NASDAQ:AMZN)--The new generation Kindle devices are the fastest-selling Kindles of all time and the bestselling products on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. Today, Amazon.com announced that sales of the new generation Kindle devices since their introduction have already surpassed total Kindle device sales from October through December 2009.

"It's still October and we've already sold more Kindle devices since launch than we did during the entire fourth quarter of last year--astonishing because the fourth quarter is the busiest time of year on Amazon," said Steve Kessel, Senior Vice President, Amazon Kindle. It's clear that this is going to be the biggest holiday for Kindle yet--by far."

In addition, Kindle book unit sales continue to overtake print on Amazon.com, even while print book sales continue to grow. During the past 30 days, Amazon.com customers purchased more Kindle books than print books--hardcover and paperback combined--for the top 10, 25, 100, and 1,000 bestselling books on Amazon.com.

"For the top 10 bestselling books on Amazon.com, customers are choosing Kindle books over hardcover and paperback books combined at a rate of greater than 2 to 1. Kindle books are also outselling print books for the top 25, 100, and 1,000 bestsellers--it's across the board," said Kessel. "This is remarkable when you consider that we've been selling hardcover and paperback books for 15 years, and Kindle books for just 36 months."

Other recent milestones for Kindle include:

• In the 12 weeks following the introduction of the new generation Kindles, Kindle devices or Kindle-related items such as Kindle books and covers represented 15 of the top 15 bestselling items on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk combined.
• Amazon sold more than 3 times as many Kindle books in the first nine months of 2010 as in the first nine months of 2009.
• The Association of American Publishers' latest data reports that e-book sales grew 193 percent between January and August 2010. Kindle book sales growth during the same period exceeded this rate.