• Germany’s textunes reports that sales of its enhanced e-books have surpassed conventional e-books
• Managing Director Simon Seeger credits the iPad with some of this growth
By Siobhan O’Leary
Berlin-based textunes announced last week that downloads of its e-books have doubled to the one million mark in the past six months, with enhanced e-books emerging as the most popular downloads. The download total reflects the entire 18 month period since the launch of the company. According to the results of the firm’s research released at the Frankfurt Book Fair, enhanced e-books are five times as popular as conventional e-books.
“The introduction of the iPad in Germany has given an additional boost to our user numbers. We more than doubled the amount of e-books sold in the past six months,” said Managing Director Simon Seeger.
The majority of downloads are for iPhones (62%), followed by iPod touch (28%) and iPad (10%). Textunes is now also branching out to the Android platform.
Textunes has been focused on developing enhanced content in recent months, including the launch of the first lavishly animated and interactive children’s e-book in Germany, Olchis aus Schmuddelfing, produced in cooperation with the Oetinger publishing group and launched to coincide with the Frankfurt Book Fair.
On average, the company makes one sale in every five sample readings and the average price of e-books for smartphones is €8.88 (just under the average price for a paperback in Germany — €9.19 — according to a study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers).
The infographic of texttunes smartphone e-book purchasing statistics explains all: www.textunes.de/publishers (German only).
DISCUSS: Are enhanced e-books actually “readable”?