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Apple Set to Match Amazon's $9.99 Price Point for eBook Best Sellers?

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Apr 12, 2001
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App Advice reports that earlier this week it had an opportunity to view Apple's forthcoming iBookstore and saw that the vast majority of titles from The New York Times' best sellers list currently appear priced at the same $9.99 price point favored by Amazon's Kindle Store.
Anyway, at the moment, out of the 32 eBooks featured in the New York Time's Bestsellers section, 27, including the entire top 10 are priced at $9.99.
Click to expand...
Of the remaining five titles from the best sellers list, the highest price listed is $12.99.

Apple's iBookstore pricing model, based on that used in its App Store, involves publishers setting sales prices with Apple taking a 30% cut of revenue. That model had been thought to be pushing most best seller eBook titles to a range of $12.99 to $14.99, above the $9.99 price point seen with Amazon's offerings. But a subsequent report suggested that the higher price range is merely a ceiling and that publishers will be permitted and even encouraged to offer lower price points such as those apparently being seen in the iBookstore.

The iBookstore is set to launch in the U.S. alongside the iPad on April 3rd.

Article Link: Apple Set to Match Amazon's $9.99 Price Point for eBook Best Sellers?
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/03/24/apple-set-to-match-amazons-9-99-price-point-for-ebook-best-sellers/
Hopefully, in the long run, this will end up being a lot of sturm-und-drang, and the prices of new release eBooks aren't going to rise dramatically... After all the ruckus with Amazon's store, it's still relatively rare that the books I want are >$10. OTOH, the sellers have yet to make good on their suggestion that they would lower prices over time to be commensurate with paperback -- best-seller and literary fiction still seems very rarely less thn $8.99....
 
why is this even a suprise?

jobs said it quite clearly to mossberg on camera at the handson area at the apple event
 
Or this may just be a screenshot of a "$9.99 Section". But you never know. I am not buying the iPad for e-books at all but if they were $9.99 I might occasionally. However, I would never pay $15 for an e-book.
 
I'm all for lower prices, but I don't see $12-$15 for a new book release as unreasonable, it's still a substantial discount off a physical book. I suppose it depends on whether you like to keep your books around on shelves, or lend them out a lot. I used to collect books (and in fact I still have a lot of them), but in practice I rarely lend them out and if you've ever had to move an apartment or house full of books, you know how heavy they are. Feels like you're moving boxes of rocks.
 
HiRez said:
I'm all for lower prices, but I don't see $12-$15 for a new book release as unreasonable, it's still a substantial discount off a physical book. I suppose it depends on whether you like to keep your books around on shelves, or lend them out a lot. I used to collect books (and in fact I still have a lot of them), but in practice I rarely lend them out and if you've ever had to move an apartment or house full of books, you know how heavy they are. Feels like you're moving boxes of rocks.
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I'm a Kindle owner and avid user, and there have been a number of new books sold on Kindle for $ 14.95. That's still a $10 discount over the hardcover price. The first time I saw that price for a book I wanted (a new novel), I was a bit upset, but when I saw the hardcover price, much less so.

Price will work itself out over time based on what the market will bear, I'm not worried about it.
 
lol this is almost mandatory if RH isn't joining Apple's consortium. If consumers are buying off the best seller's list, and see some for $9.99 (Random House books), and the rest for $15.99...I'd submit those $9.99 books are going to run up the charts that much faster, to the detriment to the other publishers who have been drinking Jobs' coolaid.
 
*sigh* I wish they would just end this price fixing madness and let the publishers AND *ahem* independent authors sell their books for whatever price they see fit, the free markets should decide!
 
HiRez said:
I'm all for lower prices, but I don't see $12-$15 for a new book release as unreasonable, it's still a substantial discount off a physical book. I suppose it depends on whether you like to keep your books around on shelves, or lend them out a lot. I used to collect books (and in fact I still have a lot of them), but in practice I rarely lend them out and if you've ever had to move an apartment or house full of books, you know how heavy they are. Feels like you're moving boxes of rocks.
Click to expand...

While it still is a good discount - you are STILL overpaying for what you are getting. The have pretty much no material or production cost so just selling copies and copies of the same file. They should definitely consider the $10 price point. While I feel it will be a very successful service no matter what - I think they could double their customers at the lower price.

diabolic said:
The books in the image are the current NY Times bestseller fiction and non-fiction lists.
Click to expand...

Ah.
 
Does anyone think Apple knows what their pricing strategy will be one year from now? It is a new market. It will change quite a bit. Just sit back and watch the chaos.

On a side note, I would pay more for an electronic version of a book than a paper one. Kindle books are great. (They are easy to take with you. You can buy a new book anytime you want. You never lose your place...) I expect Apple books to be better.
 
wdaleherring said:
While it still is a good discount - you are STILL overpaying for what you are getting. The have pretty much no material or production cost so just selling copies and copies of the same file. They should definitely consider the $10 price point. While I feel it will be a very successful service no matter what - I think they could double their customers at the lower price.
Click to expand...

Electronic books have the same editing and marketing cost as a paper book. Authors of electronic books get paid the same as paper books (or they should). Printing and distribution costs of books are trivial (Even hard back). If the publishers want to knock off the $1 they save by not printing and shipping the book, I will take the money. I don't see that $1 as a big deal.
 
Its strange that Apple isnt preloading the ipads, iphones and ipods with ibookstore. Its a competitive advantage that certainly I would use.
 
Friscohoya said:
Its strange that Apple isnt preloading the ipads, iphones and ipods with ibookstore. Its a competitive advantage that certainly I would use.
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Certainly very non-Microsoftian of them. I'm sure this will shatter the world views of all those "Apple is evil" posters that have been on here lately.

One question I seldom see discussed - will there be versions of the reader for Mac and iPhone? It would be odd for Apple to leave those devices out.
 
Friscohoya said:
Its strange that Apple isnt preloading the ipads, iphones and ipods with ibookstore. Its a competitive advantage that certainly I would use.
Click to expand...

How is it strange? You haven't been around the company very long. Apple has never given away a dime.
 
wdaleherring said:
While it still is a good discount - you are STILL overpaying for what you are getting. The have pretty much no material or production cost so just selling copies and copies of the same file.
Click to expand...

And you'd be wrong, given that material costs are much less than $2 cost of the standard hardback cost. Check with any agent or publisher. The biggest costs are in talent acquisition, marketing and editing---these are labor intensive costs that would be there no matter how the distribution is.
 
RalfTheDog said:
Electronic books have the same editing and marketing cost as a paper book. Authors of electronic books get paid the same as paper books (or they should). Printing and distribution costs of books are trivial (Even hard back). If the publishers want to knock off the $1 they save by not printing and shipping the book, I will take the money. I don't see that $1 as a big deal.
Click to expand...

Your right but once that process is done and over with they still have to continue to pay to manufacture the books for all the copies that are ever sold. With e-books, after the initial process, there is none of that.
 
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