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Amazon Reluctantly Agrees to Higher eBook Pricing
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Amazon is biting one of the hands that feeds it. I don't see what they hope to gain by airing their disagreements with Macmillan this way. I don't think consumers are holding Amazon responsible for e-book prices that clearly begin with the prices set by publishers.
Agreed and I had already thought of that, but no one knows until the iPad is actually released.
So because consumers can look forward to paying more thanks to Apple's efforts... is what you're saying?
Nope. Amazon is not ePub, it's .azw, which is a proprietary format and not natively compatible w/ the iPad. You would have to have the Kindle app on your iPad.
I don't really have a problem with publishers wanting to charge variable pricing. They can't cater to the increasing sentiment of people that everything in digital format should be far less expensive. As long as they provide added value to justify the price increase, then I'm ok with that.
Don't want to go down the road of early pioneers on the internet who gave everything away for free, and now can't get peoples' minds wrapped around the fact that free is not always a sustainable business model. Amazon just recently changed their revenue model from a 70/30 split to a 30/70 for publishers, so I don't believe this corporate speak about totally being in favor of protecting the consumer. There's a new player in town(Apple), and publishers weren't totally happy with Amazon's near monopolistic control to begin with.
Don't want to go down the road of early pioneers on the internet who gave everything away for free, and now can't get peoples' minds wrapped around the fact that free is not always a sustainable business model. Amazon just recently changed their revenue model from a 70/30 split to a 30/70 for publishers, so I don't believe this corporate speak about totally being in favor of protecting the consumer. There's a new player in town(Apple), and publishers weren't totally happy with Amazon's near monopolistic control to begin with.
It's not competition, it's greed.
30%?! Paper books have similar, if in some cases not much smaller margin. For that, a small bookstore has to have employees, they have to keep them on their shelves and so on.
With digital versions, the overheads are much lower. These greedy corporations (not necessarily Amazon) just don't get it that people do not buy as much content, because it is expensive. Personally, I would rather have a paperback and sell it or take it to a charity shop than pay more for a digital copy. The same applies to CDs.
Bloody greedy pieces of ARRRGH!
30%?! Paper books have similar, if in some cases not much smaller margin. For that, a small bookstore has to have employees, they have to keep them on their shelves and so on.
With digital versions, the overheads are much lower. These greedy corporations (not necessarily Amazon) just don't get it that people do not buy as much content, because it is expensive. Personally, I would rather have a paperback and sell it or take it to a charity shop than pay more for a digital copy. The same applies to CDs.
Bloody greedy pieces of ARRRGH!
My mistake. I should have left out Amazon. I did say Standards. Unlike others though.
I purchased "UP" recently as a 4 disk package, which also included both a DVD and a digital download. Needless to say, I would only want to do that for movies that are actually worth watching more than a few times.
No one knows what? We know GPS only comes w/ the 3G model. It's listed on the iPad specs page at Apple.com. We also know there is no camera which is absent from the specs page. Anyone who thinks a camera is going to be added last minute is dreaming.
Value added? DRM makes e-books far less valuable to me than real books. I have a lot of excellent books from my grandfather that I can still read and make use of. My grandchildren probably won't be able to do the same with any e-book I buy today because the particular technology that unlocks those e-books will long since ceased to exist during their time.
I hope the iBook reader supports annotating like the Kindle. Otherwise its not going to go far in the textbook market.
30%?! Paper books have similar, if in some cases not much smaller margin. For that, a small bookstore has to have employees, they have to keep them on their shelves and so on.
With digital versions, the overheads are much lower. These greedy corporations (not necessarily Amazon) just don't get it that people do not buy as much content, because it is expensive. Personally, I would rather have a paperback and sell it or take it to a charity shop than pay more for a digital copy. The same applies to CDs.
Bloody greedy pieces of ARRRGH!
Not only that with digital version there are no remainders. What really chaps me is the same hardbound book on the remainers/clearance shelf for $5.99 is $15 as a DRM'd e-version. Honestly I wouldn't have a problem paying $15 if there was no DRM or if I was allowed to legally transfer (sell) the book after I was done with it... just like a paper version. With digital books the right of first sale goes out the window, something you'd think the publishers would rejoice over.
Exactly! When the price is the same, I'd rather buy the physical book and then be able to re-sell it or donate it to a library/Goodwill/whatever when I'm done. Of course, this is exactly what the publishers hate since they are, just like the music/movie industry, exceptionally greedy and would prefer that you paid over and over for everything they make, every time you view/use it.
Not to mention the DRM preventing me from reading it in the future, etc.
For $14.99, I'll be getting the good old paperback version and not even thinking twice.
The price of the kindle books on amazon when I looked a while back where way to pricy already for a digital copy. You have to keep in mind that when I buy a book in the book store that i do not need spend another $300+ so I can actually read it. I can buy a lot of books for that already.
For e-books the publish has no upfront printing , storing , distributing cost. No interest if they had to borrow some of that money. Also a paper book has a resell value .
I can also easily share , and give away a paper book , and they can easily give it to someone else when they are don. 1/2 the books I buy are read by 2 other people I know.
Factoring in my upfront cost to just read 1 e-book , the saving to the publisher , the loss of the resale value , the fact that an e-boock is really only readable by one ( I can not pass it along to all my friends , they all have to buy their own copy ) , the value of an e-book is significantly lower. To me anything above 1/3 of the paper book is just not a fair price.
For e-books the publish has no upfront printing , storing , distributing cost. No interest if they had to borrow some of that money. Also a paper book has a resell value .
I can also easily share , and give away a paper book , and they can easily give it to someone else when they are don. 1/2 the books I buy are read by 2 other people I know.
Factoring in my upfront cost to just read 1 e-book , the saving to the publisher , the loss of the resale value , the fact that an e-boock is really only readable by one ( I can not pass it along to all my friends , they all have to buy their own copy ) , the value of an e-book is significantly lower. To me anything above 1/3 of the paper book is just not a fair price.
I'm sure Macmillan will be glad to know that this Kindle user will not be purchasing an e-book for more than $9.99 and I'm sure I speak for many-a-Kindle users.
With a bit of luck it will backfire on them and other publishers won't follow suit.
Amazon does not use e-pub. They use their own format (AZW). The Kindle dos not even support e-pub. Books bought from Amazon can only be read on a Kindle ebook reader or by using the Kindle software (eg the Kindle iPhone app). They cannot be read using Apple's ebook software nor can they be read on any other ebook reader.
The e-pub format also allows DRM to be added. Currently it looks like Apple will use different DRM system to other book stores. If you buy a book from a different ebook store, even though it is in the e-pub format, you may not be able to read it on an iPad. Similarly books bought through the Apple iBook store may not work on other ebook readers.