Quote:
Originally Posted by avantman42
My understanding is that having a monopoly isn't illegal, but abusing the power that the monopoly gives is. If Waterstones & Amazon (or even if one of them alone) has 99% of the market, that's OK. If they use that domination of the market to the detriment of customers, then they can be prosecuted under anti-trust laws.
As I say, that's my understanding. I may be wrong.
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I am aware of the legal situation in the UK but in most European countries it is illegal to form a cartel that dominates the market.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
From not doing any marketing, from not selling ebooks, from not needing to integrate book delivery to an existing website, and not needing to send 100 physical devices to every Waterstones store, to sit on the shelf until someone buys one.
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How much money are they actually saving here? Unless they spend big on marketing they aren't going to see huge sales for the Kindle either. They are just one of many places where the Kindle is being sold, after all. If Waterstones' staff couldn't sell Sonys, then they can't sell Kindles either, unless Waterstones invests into training, marketing etc.
How much money would it cost to take an existing reader like the Pocketbook Touch and implement some Waterstones branding and set the existing Waterstones epub store as a default? One million GBP would be an exceedingly generous estimate.
What Waterstones has done here is akin to asset stripping. Generate quick profit - in this case by selling your access to customer to the highes bidder - but suffer the disadvantages for a long time to come. As it happens this strategy is completely opposite to the one pursued by Amazon itself.