I’m always amazed by how easily the press and my favorite, respectable bloggers tend to naively buy into certain announcements without even wondering whether or not they make sense. Case in point: Amazon’s recent announcement about them selling more Kindle ebooks than good old hard cover books.

Sure, that’s an impressive and important milestone, but people seem to be reinterpreting it to mean that “Kindle books are now outselling hard cover books”, or, even worse “Kindle books are now outselling paper books”. That’s amazing to me because that’s not the case. Kindle books are not even close to outselling hard covers, and certainly not paper books in general.

• Kindle books are now outselling hardcover books within Amazon, but we need to remember that Amazon is the only store offering Kindle books, and it has many competitors in the US that also sell hard covers. Hence, hard cover books are still outselling Kindle books, probably by a lot. If we want to get a feel for how close the Kindle is to surpassing hardcover book sales overall, we need to know Amazon’s market share in worldwide hardcover book sales.
• Hard cover books make up a relatively small portion of total book sales due to their high price. Paperbacks general outsell hardcovers many to one.

Bottom line, Kindle is making great progress, but is nowhere near outselling paper books. Not in the US, and certainly not globally. I’d guess it’s currently not even at 10% market penetration in the US.

Update: Blogger Jay Yarow has posted an interesting article which estimates that Amazon’s latest numbers add up to a 6% market share for Kindle books.

Back in the day when the audio world was making its big transition from analog to digital, many consumers and audio engineers were complaining about the “cold sound” and the lack of “feel” that digital audio exhibited. At the time I was one of those who mocked those people and argued that this so-called “feel” they’ve gotten used to is really the distortion exhibited by their less-than-ideal mediums. They’ve gotten so used to the crackle of vinyl that they can’t live without it, whereas digital audio is pure and unblemished.

Now I find myself on the other side of this argument in yet another media that’s getting digitized: books. I’ve recently purchased an Amazon Kindle 2, and while I find the device to be overall usable and effective, I find myself yearning for that natural, organic feel that books have. I miss looking at their beautifully printed covers and that lovely feeling of paper between my fingers. Have I turned into one of the old farts I was arguing with on the digital audio issue?

The more I think about it, I realize that Kindle is still a very immature product. You really lose a lot in the transition from a paper book to the Kindle. The screen is much smaller than the average book page, contrast and resolution are significantly lower than what you get on a printed page, images and diagrams are black and white and still look very poor, etc. These limitations might explain part of why I miss reading a printed book, but there is also a less tangible element at work here.

The Kindle is just a huge downgrade from the experience standpoint. Yes it’s practical and convenient, but it’s kind of like switching from an expensive Jaguar with beautiful wood interior to a cheap Hyundai with plastic interior. The Kindle just feels cheap and plastic, and I wonder if that aspect of the product couldn’t have been better implemented. One explanation might be that I, and others like me, are just used to paper, and that this “cheapness” I feel with plastic is something younger people just don’t experience. If that’s the case, would the younger generation ultimately embrace the Kindle or Kindle-like products and completely abandon the concept of books as we know them?

It seems sad, but it also seems very likely.

Okay, I’ve noticed two things today that made me realize that while the media/publishing companies are slowly getting their act together in terms of online publishing and such, they are still being ridiculously childish.

Unlike some people, I am one of those who are all for legitimate, organized media e-commerce. I buy e-books from Amazon for my Kindle, I buy music on iTunes for my iPhone, and I buy iTunes TV shows and movies on my Apple TV. These are all generally speaking great services which I don’t mind paying for. I sure as hell get a far superior user experience than those who steal. My problem is with unreasonable pricing.

You might have noticed that the music industry has now generally reached reasonable price levels when it comes to digital music sales. Before the digital revolution of this industry, CDs were going for around $15-$18 a pop. Thankfully, I can now buy the average DRM-free album on iTunes for $8-$10. It would be difficult to say whether that’s a reasonable price or not, but it’s certainly a lot cheaper than it used to be.

This price drop from CDs to online delivery obviously makes sense since the physical cost of manufacturing, distributing, and stocking those CDs must have accounted for some percentage of the old CD’s price levels, right? Of course it took the music industry a long while to get there, but ultimately they caught on and realized the digital product must be priced differently. If for no other reason, the price should be lower because people expect it to be!

My question is, why are the other players of this industry (TV networks, film studios, book publishers, etc.) ignoring this fact? Why are there so stupidly making the exact same mistakes the music industry made? Specifically, I’d like to know why HD movies on iTunes are priced $20, the exact same price as Blu-Ray discs? Or why are many Kindle books priced exactly the same as their paperback counterparts?

I truly find it insane, and I also happen to know from personal experience that generally speaking these prices are set by the content owners, and not by the stores. These pricing experts that come up with these price levels that are most likely making the assumption that people are accustomed to, and have been proven willing to pay such prices. The problem they are missing is that these consumers are expecting lower price levels on a digital delivery. Especially since that same digital content is usually available online for free.

My message is: Industry people, get your act together. You are trying to establish a new world order here — convince people to adopt brand new technologies such as e-book readers, etc. In order to do that you must help them see the benefits of these advancements. Otherwise they’ll just stick to what’s easiest: stealing.

Offer people an amazing user experience at reasonable prices, and you’ll see massive widespread adoption. Otherwise, prepare for an unstoppable torrent (get the pun?) of piracy that would never end and would ultimately kill the media industry as you know it.