MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Pain threshold on e-book prices

Bob Russell · 01-14-2005, 09:15 AM

I think it's hard to understand why the typical novel should be more than a paperback, so I put no more than $5, but we may have to bear with higher prices until the infrastructure and competition is in place. When they catch on in mass, the cost of things like the estore and customer service will drop substantially in terms of a per-book price.

Reference works may justify higher prices, but the DRM needs to be solved. Unless it's something you use every day, who wants to buy a reference book that is useless when you lose your registration number or change devices?

And lest we forget, it also has to do with market forces. Costs, competition, supply, demand...

01-14-2005, 09:15 AM	#11
Bob Russell Recovering Gadget Addict Posts: 5,381 Karma: 676161 Join Date: May 2004 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Device: iPad	I think it's hard to understand why the typical novel should be more than a paperback, so I put no more than $5, but we may have to bear with higher prices until the infrastructure and competition is in place. When they catch on in mass, the cost of things like the estore and customer service will drop substantially in terms of a per-book price. Reference works may justify higher prices, but the DRM needs to be solved. Unless it's something you use every day, who wants to buy a reference book that is useless when you lose your registration number or change devices? And lest we forget, it also has to do with market forces. Costs, competition, supply, demand...