MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Charlie Stross: Publishers "Cutting their own throats"

Andrew H. · 11-29-2011, 05:39 PM

I'm not sure that any of his points matter much. When iTunes did away with DRM in 2008, they didn't suffer any loss of marketshare because they still executed better than anyone else. Specifically, they offered the best way (in the opinion of most people) of integrating their sales with their devices.

I don't think that things would be any different if the publishers did away with DRM - why would people with Kindles stop buying from Amazon? And of course non-Amazon customers could legally convert Amazon purchases to epub. (And vice versa, although I think the trend would be in Amazon's favor).

And I don't get the point about not using agency pricing - Amazon dominated in the pre-Agency pricing days in part because they offered NYT bestsellers for $9.99.

11-29-2011, 05:39 PM	#7
Andrew H. Grand Master of Flowers Posts: 2,201 Karma: 8389072 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Naptown Device: Kindle PW, Kindle 3 (aka Keyboard), iPhone, iPad 3 (not for reading)	I'm not sure that any of his points matter much. When iTunes did away with DRM in 2008, they didn't suffer any loss of marketshare because they still executed better than anyone else. Specifically, they offered the best way (in the opinion of most people) of integrating their sales with their devices. I don't think that things would be any different if the publishers did away with DRM - why would people with Kindles stop buying from Amazon? And of course non-Amazon customers could legally convert Amazon purchases to epub. (And vice versa, although I think the trend would be in Amazon's favor). And I don't get the point about not using agency pricing - Amazon dominated in the pre-Agency pricing days in part because they offered NYT bestsellers for $9.99.