Apple, publishers 'sued for price fixing'
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Re: Apple, publishers 'sued for price fixing'
#2I know I have bought less ebooks since the agency model came into play and a lot of paperback books on Amazon suddenly became three or four dollars less than the Kindle version.
I certainly haven't stopped buying them altogether, but when it was priced at ten bucks or less it was in impulse buy territory.
Re: Apple, publishers 'sued for price fixing'
#3As much as I like Apple and ebooks, it sickens me that they want to charge more than $10 for best selling ebooks. It is an electronic file. I am willing to pay more than $10 for a physical paper book I can hold in my hand, but I can't see spending more than $2-$3 for an ebook. And so I rarely buy ebooks, even though I want to, because I can't see the economics behind doing so.
If ebooks are going to be just expensive as paper books then I'm going to buy paper books. Apple and the ebook publishers are just shooting themselves in the foot.
Re: Apple, publishers 'sued for price fixing'
#4I don't understand why they aren't selling ebooks for the same price as printed books, minus the production costs. That would be fair.
Discriminating certain distribution channels might be good for profits, but I think it's clearly unethical.
Re: Apple, publishers 'sued for price fixing'
#5As as side project I helped a friend publish a small book on Amazon for the Kindle. At the time we looked into doing the iBooks Store, but it was not yet open to self publishing.
Apple's requirements for pricing were as follows:
1. You could set whatever price you wanted. (e.g.: Apple doesn't fix the price at anything specific) 2. If you sell the book electronically elsewhere, you cannot sell it on iBooks Store for more than the price you sell elsewhere. 3. Apple gives you %70 of the sales.
I don't see how this is price fixing, nor is it trying to keep the prices higher. You can sell on the kindle for the same amount as the iBooks Store.
Amazon's terms: 1. You can set the price as you like. 2. You get a variable cut of the sales (sometimes it is %30 to you, %70 to amazon.) 3. Amazon can change the price if they want and sell your book for less, and pay you less.
So, yes, it is true that Amazon can run specials where they sell your book for $0.99 to drive traffic to the store, and when they do it, they do it at your expense.
I believe the facts don't support an allegation of price fixing.
As to the idea that Apple was "trying to run the kindle out of business", that's an allegation that is true of every instance of competition. If someone prices an android tablet that is competitive with the iPad feature-wise at half the iPad's price, that's "trying to run the iPad out of business" as well. It is what you're doing when you compete for sales, you want all of them to go to you and none to your competitor.
Re: Apple, publishers 'sued for price fixing'
#6I don't understand why they aren't selling ebooks for the same price as printed books, minus the production costs. That would be fair. Discriminating certain distribution channels might be good for profits, but I think it's clearly unethical.
I agree it would be fair. I don't agree that it is unethical. But I think it is counter productive. Attempts to price electronic items higher than the physical ones will only result in those items being pirated. They have not yet learned this lesson because they clearly think that the higher price will lead to more sales of the printed items.
I guess every industry needs to learn this lesson.
On the upside, the more they get addicted to the revenue from the electronic versions, the more strategic it will become, and once it is sufficiently strategic to them-- rather than the experiment I think they see it as now-- they will start having to seriously compete.
This will change the market dramatically, and most effectively.
The alternative- forcing their prices to be lower will only result in them removing availability (e.g. they'll stop publishing ebooks.)
Re: Apple, publishers 'sued for price fixing'
#7As much as I like Apple and ebooks, it sickens me that they want to charge more than $10 for best selling ebooks. It is an electronic file. I am willing to pay more than $10 for a physical paper book I can hold in my hand, but I can't see spending more than $2-$3 for an ebook. And so I rarely buy ebooks, even though I want to, because I can't see the economics behind doing so. If ebooks are going to be just expensive…
Apple would rather charge you $0.99 for every ebook. Just like they'd rather charge only $0.99 for a single, and $0.99 per TV show and $0.99 for a movie rental. Where they have enough pricing power, they are able to achieve this (they held the line on the $0.99 single for a long time.) Where they aren't they aren't.
Unlike Amazon, Apple is not in the business of selling books. Apple is in the business of selling iPads. Apple doesn't dictate prices - they let you set whatever price you want - because Apple realizes that central planning doesn't work. (Apple' can't know what the right price for frankenstein should be, and doesn't even try, while Amazon, as a retailer, does have pricing experts. Apple just want's %30, and for the market to be as robust and vibrant as it can be.)
Amazon would cut prices against the publishers desires, and the publishers would get the lower revenue. Amazon did this to drive up popularity of the kindle. Apple doesn't believe in operating this way, and has a consistent policy- you set the price.
I believe Apple's approach is superior because more people will sign up and there will be more availability of books. (and the iBook Store is probably much large now than the kindle store was at the same number of quarters after launch.)
I don't know much about Amazon's balance sheet, but I do know that, while Apple does make money from iTunes, it is not strategic money. It is money that helps fund data centers, and stuff like that. Apple's not in the media business, it is in the devices business, and it operates a media business only to generate demand for devices. %30 is meant to show a slight profit, not to boost the bottom line.
Re: Apple, publishers 'sued for price fixing'
#8As as side project I helped a friend publish a small book on Amazon for the Kindle. At the time we looked into doing the iBooks Store, but it was not yet open to self publishing. Apple's requirements for pricing were as follows: 1. You could set whatever price you wanted. (e.g.: Apple doesn't fix the price at anything specific) 2. If you sell the book electronically elsewhere, you cannot sell it on iBooks Store for m…
The linked article has nothing to do with self-publishing and everything to do with books from large publishers:
> The complaint claims that the five publishing houses forced Amazon to abandon its discount pricing and adhere to a new agency model, in which publishers set prices and extinguished competition so that retailers such as Amazon could no longer offer lower prices for e-books.
Amazon's discount specials also are not relevant to the price-fixing claim.
Re: Apple, publishers 'sued for price fixing'
#9As much as I like Apple and ebooks, it sickens me that they want to charge more than $10 for best selling ebooks. It is an electronic file. I am willing to pay more than $10 for a physical paper book I can hold in my hand, but I can't see spending more than $2-$3 for an ebook. And so I rarely buy ebooks, even though I want to, because I can't see the economics behind doing so. If ebooks are going to be just expensive…
Printing cost of a paper book is only $3-4, so even eliminating the cost of printing, ebooks would still be expensive. I suspect most of the cost of books goes to marketing and promotion, not printing and binding.
Re: Apple, publishers 'sued for price fixing'
#10As as side project I helped a friend publish a small book on Amazon for the Kindle. At the time we looked into doing the iBooks Store, but it was not yet open to self publishing. Apple's requirements for pricing were as follows: 1. You could set whatever price you wanted. (e.g.: Apple doesn't fix the price at anything specific) 2. If you sell the book electronically elsewhere, you cannot sell it on iBooks Store for m…
The linked article has nothing to do with self-publishing and everything to do with books from large publishers: > The complaint claims that the five publishing houses forced Amazon to abandon its discount pricing and adhere to a new agency model, in which publishers set prices and extinguished competition so that retailers such as Amazon could no longer offer lower prices for e-books. Amazon's discount specials also…
Self publishing is irrelevant to my point. The terms I mentioned are the terms both companies offered to everybody. Apple offered better terms, and specifically included in those terms that publishers couldn't jack up the prices compared to the price elsewhere.
The only reason Amazon offered "lower prices" in the past is because they ran discount specials. Amazon also allowed publishers to set the price on the books, except when Amazon would run a lower price.
Further, the complaint is to price fixing, and the reality is, both before and after the iBook Store came into being, neither company engaged in price fixing.