The Amazon Kindle Is Selling Faster Than Ever

Amazon recently confirmed that, in the 4 weeks following the launch of their Kindle 3, more Kindle readers were sold than during the same time period following any previous Kindle reader launch. The latest Kindle is, not just still in high demand, but is the fastest selling Kindle ever. As usual, Amazon did not reveal the exact number of Kindles which were sold, but they did advise that, since the release of the new version of the Kindle, customers have bought more Kindles on Amazon.com and the new Kindle store at Amazon.co.uk combined than any other item.

Amazon’s latest generation Kindle 3 was unveiled at the end of July. The latest version packs the same 6″ display into a new slimmed down design which is 21% smaller and 15% lighter. Page turns are 20% faster and onboard memory has been doubled from 2GB to 4GB – enough for 3,500 books. With the Wi-Fi turned off, the battery will now last for a month – even with the Wi-Fi on, a 10 day life is achievable – and the e-ink technology screen has had its contrast improved.

A new entry level Wi-Fi only Kindle was introduced for customers who don’t feel the need for 3G. This sells for just $ 139, with the Wi-Fi plus 3G model on offer at $ 189. Those prices are very much lower than the earlier Kindle price tag $ 359. It’s a clear sign of how the e-book reader market is developing and maturing.

During the first half of 2010, Amazon sold three times as many Kindle books as they did during the first half of 2009. There are now in excess of 670,000 titles available on the Kindle store – not including the 1.8 million free out of copyright books available.

The Kindle remains the top selling product on Amazon’s site. It is also the most wished for and gifted item on the Amazon website.com and Amazon.co.uk. With the high sales returns for the Kindle and the latest technical upgrades, it would be easy to overlook the importance of the launch of the UK Kindle store at Amazon.co.uk. The UK store has opened with 400,000 titles available and could increase international Kindle sales. If it proves to be successful – and early sales returns suggest that this will be the case – then Amazon may well open further Kindle stores in countries like Japan, France and Germany – all of whom have their own “local” Amazon websites.

Whilst the Apple iPad continues to offer competition, this doesn’t seem to concern Amazon very much. For the moment at least, the price differential between the Kindle and the iPad is large enough to make the Kindle the natural choice for most customers who are primarily interested in reading books. As the e-book market matures, much more emphasis will be given to the sale of e-books as opposed to e-book readers. The fact that Kindle book sales are outstripping the sales of Apple’s iBooks by a factor of sixty to one must be very encouraging for Amazon.