Amazon is dominating and is continuing to dominate, because it was the first to market with the complete ebook solution-the store and consumption device in your hand. Ibooks , as the fourth or fifth to market , was, in retrospect, always going to struggle-especially since it allowed competing stores on its device. Apple doesn't really care that much- ebooks are just one of many services that it offers on iOS. Without agency pricing, iBooks would be even further behind, as would be everyone but Amazon. You should note that Mr. Stross is not a fan of Amazon. See Comment #7:
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I really dislike Amazon -- not least because they've delisted my books three different times now. I don't think they care about the quality of the fiction they sell; what they care about is making money as a retailer, same as WalMart. Fact is, the books are a commodity sourced from a variety of competitive sole traders; if they can force down supplier wages and get the product cheaper, they'll do exactly that (and not lose any sleep over it). And because being a writer is something many people dream about, there are a lot of souls out there who will do it for free if they have to.
I reckon once Amazon break the Big Six, they'll be in a position to make the authors an offer they can't refuse -- Amazon's terms, or the road. And the terms will be a lot less favourable than the current 70% of net that everybody is mesmerized by.
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