Originally Posted by murraypaul
Sigh. When comparing a new entrant to a market to the existing monopoly or majority incumbent, measuring improvement in %age terms doesn't really mean a lot, because the growth is from such a low level. Comparing %age improvement or drop-off makes much more sense once the initial exponential growth phase has ended.
For example, between 2008 and 2010, US ebook revenue grew 1274%. What can we actually learn from that number? It grew a lot, but would our reaction have been any different if it had been 1000% or 3000%? The numbers just don't really mean anything.
Sigh, indeed. The Google store isn't a "new entrant" to the market. It's been around for four years. So the initial growth phase has already ended, and the growth mentioned in the article I linked to was not from the initial levels but from January of this year.
Your ebook example isn't relevant to anything as it refers to growth over a 2-year period. Moreover, you present hypothetical growth rates in a vacuum. What were the revenues at the start of 2008? And what were corresponding revenue trends for hardback and paperback books? One would need to know this in order to determine how impressive the growth is.