Comments on: Kindle book sales surpass print on Amazon UK

By: Ron Abate

Ron Abate — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:57:20 +0000

I would not be surprised to see the development of dual screen technology where tablets and e-readers merge.

By: Mindsight

Mindsight — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 22:54:34 +0000

A while back, Kevin Kelly asked Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos about the trending-towards-free pricing of the Kindle. Bezos smiled, and his reply was a cryptic, “Oh, you noticed that?”

In addition to books, the Kindle can deliver games, music and movies, and each generation of devices ups the “consumability” of the media Amazon sells. There’s probably a tipping point coming up for them, where on average their profits on the media sold far surpass the cost of the device itself. (Perhaps they’ve already passed that point.)

From the standpoint of shareholder value and overall company profits, I wouldn’t start giving away the Kindle, though, until a competitor started offering their own devices for free. Apple doesn’t seem inclined to do this, and I don’t see Barnes & Noble going that route anytime soon, either.

A bit out of left field, perhaps, but I can imagine Disney or Scholastic or Addison-Wesley, or some other child/family/educational media giant beating Amazon, et al., to the punch, here: giving away a basic, rugged (i.e., flexible-screen) reader/player, tied exclusively to their own content, to families or schools. Or maybe as part of a cable TV/Internet subscription package.

By: MatthewQ

MatthewQ — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:46:02 +0000

I wonder if this includes books sold in the Amazon community by third party shops/people? To be honest, I buy most of mine this way because they’re usually cheaper.

I like my Kindle too, though.

By: eldras

eldras — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 16:34:27 +0000

Wow this really surprised me.
Longer term books will be autowritten by weak a.i.s
There are already systems that do that now but the stories are poor.
Reverse engineering best sellers to expert systems is surely going to happen.

By: Gorden Russell

Gorden Russell — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 15:56:43 +0000

Good idea, GatorALLin, there’s got to be a logarithmic progression in there some where.

By: GatorALLin

GatorALLin — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 13:02:04 +0000

…so could Amazon give out FREE Kindles if you buy 50 books, or some way to create a win/win if they know books going digital helps sell even more for them? Can we say there is a Mores Law like curve for electronic book sales like this…. or is it growing even faster like some logarithmic curve to increase at an increasing rate?