New Amazon Book Store

[Michael]

http://www.theguardian.com/technology...

Thoughts on this? I guess if it's successful for them they will expand. Is this due to a decline in eBook sales?

[Andrew]

Amazon moving into bricks and mortar retail is something that people have been predicting for years, it's almost a case of "what took them so long?"

I wouldn't read too much into this regarding eBook sales. It's always worth remembering that although many authors have got rich from their Kindle publishing activities, and Amazon have always taken their cut, the company as a whole has very rarely been particularly profitable.

E-reader hardware isn't selling much any more (note that's only compared to crazy levels of sales a few years ago, I'm sure they're still shifting enough machines to keep the lights on). Loads of people read on tablets instead, and pretty much everyone who wants a Kindle owns one, with no particularly pressing reasons to upgrade. That doesn't mean that e-books are declining, though many speculate that readers are becoming a bit more discerning and maybe buying fewer books, now that the technology's novelty has worn off.

[Jim]

I was thinking of going into the shop, browsing, looking at the books I was interested in.


And then going and buying on-line ;-)

[B J]

Nice one, Jim.

[Patti (baconater)]

That's exactly what I'd do, Jim.

Or stand right in the shop and download. I did that in Smiths at the airport last time we flew.

[Jim]

but download from somebody other than Amazon :-)

[Patti (baconater)]

If I can find it cheaper than Amazon, yep.