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Apple Rebuts Antitrust Charges Over E-Book Pricing
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Utter nonsense.
Apple is incredibly late to the ebook game, struggling to gain marketshare and offers an inferior technical platform to deliver the books.
"We will finally have electronic books within easy reach"!? Sounds like the Kindle before the iPad was even launched - and that was by no means the first ebook reader.
Then why did I buy The Lost World for $5 less with Amazon? I would have rather had it on iBooks because I like the formatting better.
The price is the same now ($8) but back when I bought it It was $15 on iBooks and $10 on Amazon.
So its definitely possible unless this is some recent new thing.
EDIT: Case in point, look up OpenGL Superbible: $47.99 on iBooks, $27.35 on Kindle.
Has not been possible since about 4 months after the launch of the original iPad when Amazon was forced into the agency model. The prices for e-books by the 5 major publishing houses listed in the complaint here all set the prices of every e-book sold, and they are required to be the same price everywhere. So unless the book you bought isn't published by one of the 5 major publishing houses, nope not possible.
Ah ok that makes more sense that its with certain publishers. Thanks for the clarification
Those books are NOT published by Agency Model publishers - they use the old-style wholesale arrangement.
Many smaller publishers do not use the Agency Model.
In some parts of the world, subdivisions of the publishers named in the antitrust case deliberately DO NOT use the Agency model due to its questionable legality (e.g. Random House in the UK).
The attached image shows how Amazon denotes books that are sold under the Agency Model (This price was set by the publisher). They've done this because of the amount of people that are confused about the difference in prices of paper books (which Amazon has full control over) and ebooks.
For non-agency books, Amazon's policy is pretty much to match or beat the competition's pricing. When Apple offered books for free as part of their "12 days of Christmas" promotion, Amazon also offered the specific titles for free.
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See the picture in the above post.
As for actually working it out without looking on Amazon, it can be quite complicated.
Some imprints of the big publishers (named in the lawsuit) aren't in the Agency model and there are regional variations.
Sounds way too confusing
I guess its a good thing that most of the stuff I buy is outside the agency model then?
Then again I really don't buy a ton of e-books, they're usually programming books for reference. I do have to say though I think iBooks are too pricey for not having the printed material. (Almost $50 for OGL Superbible is a prime example).
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...but the accusation wasn't that Apple prevented innovation or broke Amazons monopolistic grip.
This site needs to report on a wider varity of opinions about this case, instead of continually referring to the same slanted article by a libertarian-leaning writer. I have seen others quoted as saying that the DoJ case is a "slam dunk." I don't know who is right, but then probably nobody else does at this early stage either.
I don't know much about the legal merits of the case, but given that:
-The US has launched a case (both federally and in several states)
-The EU is considering a case
-The UK has considered a case (and stepped aside in favour of the EU)
-Australia is considering a case
There has to be something to these claims.
... and several publishers have settled already.
Exactly. This is a serious, complicated issue. It doesn't lend itself to homeboy propaganda.
It s not a slam dunk, but it's likely to never get to a judge.
Apple doesn't need the agency model any longer. The iBook store has plenty of momentum now.
They will likely admit no wrong doing, settle out of court, drop the agency model, then lower prices to force Amazon to lose money to compete. They can spend $1,000,000,000 punishing Amazon this way.
Wanna play hardball Amazon? Let's play.
Apple doesn't need the agency model any longer. The iBook store has plenty of momentum now.
They will likely admit no wrong doing, settle out of court, drop the agency model, then lower prices to force Amazon to lose money to compete. They can spend $1,000,000,000 punishing Amazon this way.
Wanna play hardball Amazon? Let's play.
Sounds like another case of the jealousies. Apple does good stuff, please don't try take them down for it even if you are jealous.
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popcorn is very nutritional too
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popcorn is very nutritional too
Well said.
The "news" we get is so heavily filtered the chances of getting the facts are slim.
That said, Apple is so big, powerful, & influential, it's hard to trust them at this point. After all they've got a track record of massive profit, super egos, and a burning desire to rub the competitions nose in it.
Backed up by a rabid band of yes men, it's Apple's way or else.
And why stop there? To punish Microsoft, Samsung, Dell, HP and others Apple should also drop prices on computers, tablets and phones. We all know those are artificially high.
That's pretty much what I've been saying in the other threads on this topic. The vast majority of antitrust cases are settled by consent, not by a judge. The folks who are cheerleading for Apple to go the distance really don't know what they are arguing for. The last thing Apple wants or needs is the prolonged agony of an antitrust trial.
For the sake of capitalism, I hope Apple is not cheating.
For the sake of my AAPL, I hope Apple will win the lawsuit.
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"First" doesn't matter. I know Apple was not the first to make eBooks, but they are finally making them available to a LOT of people and everyone who uses the most popular tablet, the iPad. So far, Apple has been the company that "does it right". Were they first with MP3 players? Not at all, but they made the best MP3 (more notably, AAC) player and turned it into a huge industry with a lot of users. Before, it was an obscure product. Same with eBooks nowadays... I've only seen one person ever use one.
This even goes back to the Macintosh, where Apple was first to make a mainstream PC with a GUI. Someone else already thought of it, but it doesn't matter. I invented music tapes (storage of analog media with magnetic tape), you know, but I soon found out that they were already invented. However, the original inventor did no more work than I did, leaving others to develop them.
For the sake of my AAPL, I hope Apple will win the lawsuit.
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"First" doesn't matter. I know Apple was not the first to make eBooks, but they are finally making them available to a LOT of people and everyone who uses the most popular tablet, the iPad. So far, Apple has been the company that "does it right". Were they first with MP3 players? Not at all, but they made the best MP3 (more notably, AAC) player and turned it into a huge industry with a lot of users. Before, it was an obscure product. Same with eBooks nowadays... I've only seen one person ever use one.
This even goes back to the Macintosh, where Apple was first to make a mainstream PC with a GUI. Someone else already thought of it, but it doesn't matter. I invented music tapes (storage of analog media with magnetic tape), you know, but I soon found out that they were already invented. However, the original inventor did no more work than I did, leaving others to develop them.
seen this movie before...company gets to big (standard oil,microsoft) doj comes up with some lame excuse to knock them down...keep your heads up apple...and get good lawyers!
t's nice to see Apple doesn't consider fortune 500 companies to be legitimate competition.
Meanwhile, all I've seen is book prices going up, not down.
Not that Apple would ever lie of course...
Meanwhile, all I've seen is book prices going up, not down.
Not that Apple would ever lie of course...