Digital Rules with Amazon

A couple of weeks ago it became official: Amazon is selling more e-books than hardcovers and paperbacks combined. This is a remarkable feat, occurring in less than 3 1/2 years. Amazon started selling its Kindle e-book reader in November of 2007. The sales of e-books will only accelerate with the popularity of other tablet devices.

Amazon has the biggest e-bookstore on the market. The company is counting on increased growth from people accessing their store from other devices, as well as the continued development and refinement of the Kindle. Amazon has steadily worked on improving the experience with smaller, lighter devices; improved battery life; lower costs. Their latest experiment involves advertiser-supported devices.

Many observers expect that Amazon is working towards the “Gillette model.” The latter company thrived under the philosophy of: “Give them the razor for free and they’ll have to come back to buy the blades.”