Quote:
Originally Posted by stonetools
I'm going to bow to your knowledge of the wholesale model. What I do know is that under the wholesale model, the retailer has the responsibility of setting prices, not the supplier, which means a greater administrative burden on the retailer. Apple isn't set up to do that, and doesn't want to do it. It doesn't do that in its other media stores.
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No reason they can't use the same system they use for agency: take the amount the publisher is demanding, add 42.5% and call that the retail price. A book for which the publisher demands $7 become $9.98 for the same 70/30 split that's used under the Agency model. They aren't obligated to tweak prices to cope with market shifts; they can have a flat-rate markup just like they do now.
Of course, they'd then be competing with stores that *do* shift prices by market trends, and that offer coupons and frequent-buyer bonuses. They'd have to convince potential customers that the advantages of iBooks data management are worth the occasional higher price. And if Apple's stance is "we don't want to be forced to compete in an open marketplace," well, I lack sympathy.