Settlement over e-Book Pricing to Undo Apple's Agency Model for Pricing?
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tigress666
macrumors 68040
Did I say I boycott the current method? I said I'd much prefer to pay for the reader and choose my store based on who is the best store, not who has the best reader.
As is, I actually confine myself worse than Amazon, I buy ibooks cause I much prefer Apple's reader honestly and I only planned on using my iPhone as an ebook reader (it works fine). And well now that mom is giving me her old iPad, I'll take advantage of the bigger screen when I am at home (and while I think Apple really should at least make an ibooks for the mac if not PC, especially if they really want to succeed in ibooks I don't really find reading a book on the computer has the same feel, so to speak. I'm not like some who want a paper book but I do like something I can hold in my hand). And looking at the kind of books I tend to buy I didn't find the selection much different though Amazon was a little cheaper sometimes.
Down With Apple's Price Fixing
Apple is so used to fixing the price of their computers that they think they they can fix any price they want to. I buy my Macs & iToys inspite of the price fixing by Apple.
The same does not go for eBooks. First of all I will not purchase an iBook because of the limited number of viewing options. Here we only purchase books in the Kindle format or when Apple has control of the price we will usually choose the old fashioned paperback book. For most of the agency model ebooks we choose to just check the book out of our local library in our favorite Kindle format. That means no new sale for Apple, Amazon or any of these price fixing book companies (Apple included.)
Apple is so used to fixing the price of their computers that they think they they can fix any price they want to. I buy my Macs & iToys inspite of the price fixing by Apple.
The same does not go for eBooks. First of all I will not purchase an iBook because of the limited number of viewing options. Here we only purchase books in the Kindle format or when Apple has control of the price we will usually choose the old fashioned paperback book. For most of the agency model ebooks we choose to just check the book out of our local library in our favorite Kindle format. That means no new sale for Apple, Amazon or any of these price fixing book companies (Apple included.)
Happily, the system we live in is called "free-market" capitalism, and not pure capitalism. Antitrust laws are in place to keep the capitalist part of the system from destroying the free-market part of the system.
Of course, it's possible that what they did was illegal.
It's true that there is nothing inherently wrong with the agency model. There is something wrong with producers getting together and fixing prices. (Which is was is alleged here, although, again, it may or may not be true.)
If the publishers and Apple engaged in illegal price fixing, calling the DOJ is the right thing to do. There's not much else you can do if the major publishers are illegally conspiring against you.
You do understand that what the publishers are alleged to have done is illegal?
Actually, where prices are jacked up due to illegal price fixing, consumers typically get a refund based on how much the producers jacked up the prices. (In most, but not all, cases, the consumers are not individuals, but other large corporations dependent on the price-fixing producers for cement or whatever).
Your economic analysis seems to have missed the part where price fixing is *illegal,* and had the effect of raising the prices everyone paid for the goods. It doesn't matter that someone chose to buy a product at a higher price if the higher price was due to illegal price fixing. The companies that illegally raised the price are required to repay whatever portion of the price was due to the price fixing.
How else would you think it would work? "Yeah, you colluded to illegally raise prices...but we're going to let you keep your illegal gains because some people paid those prices?"
Buckeyestar
macrumors 6502a
And they'll hand a virtual monopoly to Amazon.
IJ Reilly
macrumors P6
Exactly. Some of the views epressed here are 19th century -- and not even late 19th century, but early to mid-19th century. It's like we're trying to unlearn over 100 years of hard-learned lessons about the value of free markets.
writingdevil
macrumors 6502
I'm not sure you understand 'price fixing' if you say Apple is price fixing. Explain, please.
notabadname
macrumors 68000
Certainly not a win for the actual creators of the content. This will just drive costs down as Amazon subsidizes low prices with add dollars.
thewitt
macrumors 68020
I think many people here are not understanding how the iBook store works.
Apple does not purchase books at wholesale prices and then resell them, they pay the publisher 70% of the price of every book they sell on their behalf. They have nothing invested in inventory - virtual or otherwise.
If that should change and Apple continues to offer books they have had to first purchase, you can bet they will use their very successful retail strategies to own whatever market they wish.
You think Amazon has buying power, have you looked at Apple's bank account lately?
Apple does not purchase books at wholesale prices and then resell them, they pay the publisher 70% of the price of every book they sell on their behalf. They have nothing invested in inventory - virtual or otherwise.
If that should change and Apple continues to offer books they have had to first purchase, you can bet they will use their very successful retail strategies to own whatever market they wish.
You think Amazon has buying power, have you looked at Apple's bank account lately?
SlugBlanket
macrumors regular
"Virtual" Monopolies and "Illegal" Practices
Not unlike Apple's "virtual monopoly" with music distribution. The two positions are quite similar in that where each has a significant market share, they did what their competitors could not, namely giving the consumer a product that was packaged in a convenient and competitively priced manner.
Amazon developed the Bookstore marketplace and Apple developed the iTunes marketplace. Amazon had a good reader for those ebooks and Apple had good players for the music.
The major difference between the two is that at the moment there is no question that Amazon used illegal practices to obtain/maintain it's market position but there is a question as to wether Apple did.
Not unlike Apple's "virtual monopoly" with music distribution. The two positions are quite similar in that where each has a significant market share, they did what their competitors could not, namely giving the consumer a product that was packaged in a convenient and competitively priced manner.
Amazon developed the Bookstore marketplace and Apple developed the iTunes marketplace. Amazon had a good reader for those ebooks and Apple had good players for the music.
The major difference between the two is that at the moment there is no question that Amazon used illegal practices to obtain/maintain it's market position but there is a question as to wether Apple did.
skate71290
macrumors 6502a
You all complain about overpriced e-books....House Season 8 Pass is £45.99! Movies and TV Shows need more anti-trust attention... i have yet to see an iTunes movie cheaper than its DVD counterpart!
Ah! The pain!
Folks, let us go to the incredible time machine and travel to a place before the iBook store. A strange and foreign place in which the iPad was only an anticipated twinkle in our eyes. Let us go to January 2010. (Yes, only two fraking years ago.)
In this press release Amazon announced the adopting of the agency modes as another royalty "option":
http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1376977&highlight
Before Apples entry Amazon had enough market power to take the fat end of a 75% cut!
Then I remember this story from March 2010:
http://mhpbooks.com/hysetrical-amaz...nd-he-cant-keep-from-running-over-publishers/
Amazon owning 65% of the eBook market is already scary, in my honest opinion, and not in the long term interest of customers and authors.
drewcosten
macrumors member
Joe Konrath has been doing a great job over at his blog (http://jakonrath.blogspot.ca/) explaining how the Big 6 Cartel have been screwing over readers and authors alike and how Amazon could actually be the salvation of both groups. Lots of interesting posts on the topic, as well as on why most authors should be self-publishing rather than letting the Publishing Cartel keep screwing them over (For instance: The Big 6 don't do much, if any, promotion for authors whose names don't rhyme with Reavin Sting, and the royalties they pay out for ebooks are tiny compared to what Amazon pays self-pubbed writers).
spice weasel
macrumors 65816
No, consumers want content to be free. Big difference.
wolfshades
macrumors 6502
Reality question
How many people who are complaining about the "excessive" price for ebooks has ever done any type of comparison: between Amazon, Apple and your local retail book store?
I have and here's what I've noticed:
About the only consistency is that Apple's bookstore prices are usually around 9.99 or more. I have yet to see (or buy one) that compete's with Amazon's occasional $1.99 ebook. Therefore most of my ebooks are purchased at Amazon and downloaded to my iPad Kindle app.
How many people who are complaining about the "excessive" price for ebooks has ever done any type of comparison: between Amazon, Apple and your local retail book store?
I have and here's what I've noticed:
- ebooks are almost always cheaper than the book store (I've yet to find one that isn't)
- sometimes Apple's ebook price for the same book is higher than Amazon's
- sometimes Amazon's book is more expensive than Apple's
About the only consistency is that Apple's bookstore prices are usually around 9.99 or more. I have yet to see (or buy one) that compete's with Amazon's occasional $1.99 ebook. Therefore most of my ebooks are purchased at Amazon and downloaded to my iPad Kindle app.
The Monkey
macrumors 6502
You're partly right. In Soviet Russia, the price of goods was tightly regulated by the State and this lead to many, many problems.
However, Communism at heart is a moneyless, classless, social order structured upon the common ownership of the means of production. You can't have price fixing if there isn't any currency.
Communism is hopelessly idealistic (IMHO) which is why every implementation (i.e Russia, China) has ultimately failed to achieve even the basic tenants of the ideology.
It's best to separate the ideology from the deeply failed attempts to implement it.
BC2009
macrumors 68020
But if Apple were to pull the "most favored nation" clause then Amazon could offer incentives to publishers to offer a lower price via Amazon.com -- maybe even take a lesser cut or offer a subsidy per sold book.
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All the Amazon supporters should read the following articles:
How big is Amazon?
http://www.techspot.com/news/46327-infographic-just-how-big-is-amazon.html
How is Amazon trying to put publishers out of business?
http://pandodaily.com/2012/01/17/confessions-of-a-publisher-were-in-amazons-sights-and-theyre-going-to-kill-us/
Then tell me how good you feel about cheaper eBooks and a future where Amazon completely (instead of mostly) owns the publishing industry?
Thats a very interesting blog and it has lots of great points.
Albeit, I've discovered a TON of public domain books that I would have otherwise not read (or even known about) thanks to ebooks; I'm not saying ebooks have to be free, or even close to free ... but don't price them the same as buying the physical copy. For a brand-new release, sure, I can see a $12.99 - $16.99 price tag. I'll probably keep an eye on it, and wait to see if it drops, unless I have to have it). But $9.99 for an ebook, when the paperback sells for $7.99? Not so much.
Don't you realize that its exactly the same thing I said. The Apple store getting the lowest price is exactly the same as no other retailers getting a lower price. Again why does apple have a say to what publishers charge with other retailers (publishers have to charge a minimum of what they charge at the Apple store.) When publishers use the Apple store, both parties benefits, Apple from the 30% cut, and publishers from the consumer access. Apple wanting the best deal is unreasonable, they should get whatever deal that they're worth based on how accessible they make books.
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I want content to be as cheap as possible, but I don't expect quality content to be free. One example: there are many free public domain ebooks available, but some have bad formatting, no table of contents, or even spelling mistakes. I have frequently bought a 1-2$ version from a different publisher over a free badly formatted one.
In my opinion the right price for an ebook is around 4$ at best. Most very good self-published ebooks are around that price or even lower. Under that price I basically buy on a whim, after just a few interesting review catch my attention. Above that price and I read most of the reviews, especially the negative ones, and I have to be very convinced.
Ebooks above 10$ I usually won't ever consider buying unless they are must-have classics.
No because the "folks" is a plural, so they are not "a" beneficiary. Amazon making possibly billions while I save 1.5$ on an ebook, I'd say Amazon is a bigger beneficiary than I am.