Interest in e-books is growing, at Amazon they are already ahead of hardcover

New York - Interest in electronic books in the United States continues to grow. One of the largest bookstores in the country, Amazon.com, reported that in the past three months, it sold more e-books than books in more expensive hardback format, which is traditionally reserved for new releases in the USA. This was reported today by The New York Times.
    During this period, for every 100 hardback books sold, there were 143 electronic books sold. In the last four weeks, this trend accelerated, with 180 digital books sold for every 100 hardback books sold. "It's surprising, especially when you consider that we've been selling hardbacks for 15 years and e-books for 33 months," said Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos.
    However, there are currently no e-books in the cheaper paperback category. Although Amazon has not published any comparisons in this category, according to The New York Times, more paperbacks are still being sold than their digital versions. The supply of paper titles is also still much broader at Amazon than electronic ones. While the former offers millions, the latter has about 630,000.
    According to experts, however, the day when paper books will be in the minority in "sales" is inevitably approaching. For example, Mike Shatzin from the consulting firm Idea Logical Company believes that in ten years, paper books will account for only a quarter of all books sold. However, paper books, including hardbacks, remain strong for now. In the entire United States, interest in hardbacks has increased by 22 percent this year. However, according to the American Association of Publishers, sales of electronic books have quadrupled from the beginning of this year to May.
    Naturally, interest in electronic devices on which people can read digital books is also increasing. Amazon states that demand for its Kindle reader has grown despite the entry of the competing iPad tablet from Apple into the market. Interest in it tripled after the company significantly lowered its price at the end of June. Amazon also benefits from the fact that books produced by it can be read using software readers on devices from other manufacturers, including the iPad.