Although Amazon has not once said anything about how many Kindles or digital books it has sold, the online retailer is confident that it has a grip on as much as 80% of the e-book market.
In an interview with Cnet, Amazon Kindle VP Ian Freed said that despite any claims you may hear about the iPad, Nook, or Kobo market share, the Kindle takes between 70 and 80 percent of the market.
This includes both Kindle books sold on the Kindle device itself (about 80% of all Kindle sales) and those sold through Android, iPad, PC, Blackberry, and iPhone via Amazon’s Kindle apps.
An all-out price war erupted over e-readers after the launch of the iPad, which is stealing away e-book sales in spite of the fact that its standard LCD display causes greater eye strain than the technology used in dedicated e-reading devices.
Competition caused everyone to lower their e-reader prices, with the Nook and Kindle both going down to $199, and Borders’ Kobo being introduced to the market for $150. Now, Amazon offers a cheapest-on-the-market $130 Kindle that guts out its persistent 3G data connection.
Among other changes to the Kindle platform is that publishers can now charge whatever they want and they can earn up to 70% in royalties now.
The newest batch of Kindles sold out in just a few days after being first put on Amazon.com, so demand is still there. Consumers still look to the Kindle as the name in e-readers so a 70%-80% market share is not definitely in the hyperbolic range.
