Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
The thing with lock-in (using amazon & B&N as examples) is that since the two devices do not read the other's format, it's a matter then of trying to get the customer to buy your device. How do you do that? Lower prices and customer experience are two ways to do it.
If you can give the customer a better experience with a similar device, then you may get the sales. Once the customer has your device and enough eBooks, then the customer is not going to jump ship for the other device won't read the eBooks and you have lost your purchases. So if you bought a Kindle and now think the new nook is better, you can't sell off the Kindle and buy the nook as your Kindle eBooks are not going to work. This is why pricing is important. With pricing being the same, it comes down more to the device then anything else.
|
I agree, and it's why I think Amazon is VERY motivated to break the price fixing.
They can pretty much afford to take a loss on all their Kindle books in the name of locking in customers for a very long period of time.
On the other hand, when everything boils down to device, it gets so much more complicated. Designing and putting out new devices every year is much harder in an innovation sense than just having a permanent sale on all your books. You've got to keep up with and surpass your competitors' devices -- of which there are many -- and you've got to do so without incurring customer fatigue, also known as the "I just bought a K7 and now you're announcing a K8? Screw you, Amazon" syndrome.
I'm fairly certain that Bezos would LOVE to get rid of price fixing. He can undercut B/K/S on eBooks, and he can ride out the loss for far longer than those companies can. But keeping up with the Joneses on the device war front? Much harder to do by simply throwing money at the problem.