View Single Post
Old 04-14-2012, 08:19 PM   #56
emellaich
Wizard
emellaich ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.emellaich ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.emellaich ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.emellaich ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.emellaich ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.emellaich ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.emellaich ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.emellaich ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.emellaich ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.emellaich ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.emellaich ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 1,101
Karma: 4388403
Join Date: Oct 2007
Device: Palm>Ebookman>IPaq>Axim>Cybook>Kndl2>IPAD>Kndl3SO>Voyager>Oasis
Monopolies are not inherently evil. Eventually, anyone (any business) will make mistakes, make short-sighted decisions, or make 'evil' decisions. The problems is that if that business is a monopoly, there is no way for the market (consumers) to indicate their displeasure by going elsewhere.

It is quite possible that Amazon could be a benevolent monopoly. I don't know if they will indefinitely stay that way.

The biggest problem is that Amazon has shareholders. Shareholders are only satisfied if share prices are increasing, and this only happens if next year is even more profitable than this year. As long as the company is growing rapidly, they don't have to squeeze current businesses. Once it becomes mature, and growth slows, shareholders will pressure management to find increased profit in current businesses. The good news is that Amazon has quite a ways to go before it runs out of growth room. As a comparison, WalMart sales are 446 billion compared to Amazon sales of 48 billion.

I do agree, with others, however, that ebooks would be tough to monopolize over the long term. Digital delivery is cheap and it should be easy for others to enter the market. The toughest part would be getting the attention of customers who may not know how to find the new entrants.
emellaich is offline   Reply With Quote