Amazon.com’s ebooks now out-sell their hardcovers, the online mega-retailer announced on Monday.

The company credits the Kindle, the “most-wished-for, most-gifted” product on the site, for last quarter’s sales of 143 ebooks for every 100 hardcovers sold. In the past month, the digital-print divide has become even more pronounced: 180 ebooks left Amazon’s “shelves” for every 100 hardcovers they boxed and shipped, not including the many ebooks Amazon provides free to Kindle users.

That ebook sales are now outpacing print is “astonishing,” said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com “when you consider that we’ve been selling hardcover books for 15 years.”

The Kindle has been available in the United States for 33 months, but was only released in Canada in November of 2009. Amazon was unable to comment on sales of ebooks or Kindles specifically for the Canadian market.

Until recently, the Kindle retailed for $259 USD across North America. Several other eReaders on the market are available at lower prices: Barnes and Noble’s Nook starts at $149 USD, while Sony’s Reader Pocket Edition costs $149.99 USD. The Kobo, Indigo’s answer to the Kindle, is also sold at $149 – in Canadian dollars, of course.

About a month ago, Amazon dropped the price of the Kindle to the more competitive figure of $189 USD. Since then, sales have tripled. Bezos believes the drop in the price of the Kindle has also increased the consumption of Amazon’s ebooks. “We’ve reached a tipping point,” he said, “even while our hardcover sales continue to grow, the Kindle format has now overtaken the hardcover format.”

As we reported last week, Vancouverites interested in testing out a Kindle can do so at the West Vancouver Library – no purchase necessary.

Shannon Smart is completing a practicum at The Tyee.