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E-book Sales Are Exploding And Hurting Paperbacks, Publishers Say
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... the mass-market paperback is the thing we’re going to cannibalise most.
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Out of the mouths of CEOs... When they use the negative word "cannibalise" it's just more proof that they were woefully unprepared.
When I'm not browsing ebooks, I enjoy browsing tool catalogs. Let's say Honeywell has a set of ratcheting box wrenches, rated for 10,000VA, for $1100 or thereabouts. Then they start selling a new set of wrenches, that can do mostly the same things as the other wrenches, but have a different design and don't take up as much room in the toolbox. They also sell these for about $1100. I would think that Honeywell would expect sales of the new wrenches to reduce sales of the old wrenches, because:
- Most people are either in the market for wrenches or they aren't - there will be some people who might suddenly want wrenches that didn't want them before, but the majority were already looking for wrenches. If a new market for wrenches is created, it will be a small one compared to the existing market.
- Most people don't need both sets of wrenches. Unless they hoard wrenches. Hey, it happens. I'm sure there are people who could use a version of calibre for wrenches.
So Honeywell would plan accordingly, keep a close eye on the wrench market and adjust production as needed. What they would NOT do is compensate by pulling their products from tool rental shops or padlock the new wrenches to the purchaser so that no one else can use them.