Digital Home Thoughts: eBooks Outselling Hardcovers on Amazon

"Now the company has hit a more significant milestone, selling 143 e-books for every 100 hardcover books sold over the course of the second quarter. The rate is accelerating: For the past month, Amazon sold 180 e-books for every 100 hardcovers, and it sold three times as many e-books in the first six months of this year as it did in the first half of 2009."

It was expected, of course, as people become more comfortable in the digital age, that they would start favouring eBooks over the traditional paper format. While it is a milestone, hardcover books is only a stepping stone. I think the announcement would be more dramatic if eBooks were outselling paperbacks, which, to my understanding, tend to sell in much greater quantities. Of course, Kindle eBooks are still generally priced higher than their paperback counterpart, so I imagine that it will be a long time before they reach that milestone, even with the potential benefits that eBooks can offer. I think it also goes to show that while books in general could become a commodity, it demonstrates that lots of people are willing to pony up a fair chunk of change for content that is worthwhile. I am an audiobook fan myself, but when it comes to reading, I find myself just as comfortable with digital over analog. Anyone still in favour of dead trees?