Originally Posted by ProfCrash
Can some one explain to me why Amazon should care about BN, Apple, or Google and their resources or lack of interest in competing?
If BN cannot afford to provide a discount program or discount e-books because of its current financial position, why should Amazon and its customers be punished? If Apple and Google don't see the e-bookstore business as something that they are really interested in pursuing, why should Amazon and its customers be punished?
The argument I am reading is that the DOJ is wrong to go after Apple and the Five Publisher for collusion because the action protected BN, Apple, and Kobo from a competitor that had the resources to discount books and was interested enough in the market to work at building the Kindle brand name and eco system.
Amazon is a threat because Amazon had spent the time and resources developing its brand name, a part of that meant discounting books. Apple and Google do not seem all that interested in competing. They will play as long as they don't have to work at the game (Give Apple MFN status and raise e-book prices), make them actually compete and they are likely to walk away because, well they don't want to spend the time responding or innovating in their bookstores. BN cannot compete because it does not have enough cash to be able to match Amazon.
So as a customer of Amazon, I should be ok with higher e-book prices in the name of providing artifical competition in the e-book market?
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