Amazon Kindle e-book downloads surpass paperback books in US

WASHINGTON - Amazon has claimed that it has sold more e-books for its Kindle device in the United States as compared to paperback books in the last three months of 2010.

The BBC quoted the world’s biggest online retailer as saying that it had sold 115 e-book downloads for every 100 paperback books in the US since the beginning of the year.

Three month net sales reportedly surpassed 10 billion dollars for the first time, up 36 percent to 12.95 billion.

“Last July we announced that Kindle books had passed hardcovers and predicted that Kindle would surpass paperbacks in the second quarter of this year. So this milestone has come even sooner than we expected - and it’s on top of continued growth in paperback sales,” Amazon boss Jeff Bezos said.

Although it did not specify how many of its Kindle devices it has sold, Amazon said they have overtaken the final book in the Harry Potter series to become the top-selling item in Amazon’s history.

Amazon shares have reportedly risen nearly 75 percent from their low-point of 105.80 dollars in July last year, the report said.

Profit margins, however, were less because it had spent money on discounting, acquisitions and building new depots, it added. (ANI)