![kindlefrontgraphite[1]](http://www.teleread.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/kindlefrontgraphite1.jpg "kindlefrontgraphite[1]")
The LA Times reports on a Cowen & Co. survey that says Amazon’s Kindle has 76% of the e-book market, and is expected to have sold $701 million worth of Kindle e-books by the close of 2010—up 195% from the previous year.
The report notes that the iPad (and other platforms that have the Kindle Reader app) has helped Amazon by making it possible to buy Kindle e-books without having to own a Kindle itself. In fact, the survey notes that 20% of Kindle e-book purchasers don’t actually own a Kindle.
The "iPad is not having a negative impact on Kindle device or e-book sales," according to the report, written by Cowen analysts Jim Friedland and Kevin Kopelman. "In fact, we think the adoption of tablets will boost Kindle e-book sales."
The report suggests Amazon’s market share will gradually decline to 51% of the market (and Apple’s will rise from 5% to 16%) by 2015.
Of course, there’s nothing earthshaking in the idea that the iPad might help Amazon’s e-book sales more than it hurt them, but it’s interesting to see someone come out and quantify it.
(Found via The Bookseller.)
Amazon is showing far more business sense than Apple. You can get Kindle apps for a wide variety of gadgets and they all synch and provide a number of useful features, including a personal webpage where you can see the notes and highlights you’ve written for your Amazon-purchased books. And need I point out that, if you want to read anything textual, the Kindle 3 is a much better deal at $139 than the iPad is a $499.
Apple? They don’t even have a version of iBooks for the Mac yet and iBooks for the iPhone only runs on iOS 4.0 and later. And what they have is feature poor.
Sometimes I wonder if Steve Jobs really has his heart on selling ebooks online or if he’s just doing it because it’s become the expected thing. There’s certainly not the ‘fire in the belly’ attitude he has toward FaceTime, even though the latter is likely to never be more than a niche technology.
I read about this survey at the Kindle Review. I agree with some of it but NOT the prediction that in five years Amazon’s share of the ebook market will be 51%. I am NOT buying that, unless they are referring to worldwide and not just the US.
It will be closer to 65%- and higher of B & N doesn’t stay in the ebook business . (Who know what the future holds for them- perhaps a closing of all stores a move to only ebooks/nook. Or bankruptcy.)