Quote:
Originally Posted by Kali Yuga
The thing is, prior to Apple getting into the market and the adoption of agency pricing, Amazon had an alleged 80% of ebook market share. Should it really be the job or goal of the DoJ to give Amazon a monopoly?
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It's neither their job, nor their goal.
Their job is to shut down illegal activity, which they are doing. If this hurts the companies engaging in the illegal activity and benefits the companies not engaging in illegal activity...well I don't see a problem with that. Just like I don't think that the FBI should refuse to shut down the mob-run pizza joint, even if doing so would only leave one pizza joint on the street.
And, in any event, I think fears of Amazon's monopoly are overblown. The Kindle came out in Nov. 2007 and for *two years* had no real competition. Sonys existed, of course, but it was far inferior when it came to actually getting books on the device. This two year period gave Amazon 90% of the market.
In Nov. 2009, the Nook came out, with an integrated store like the Kindle's. By the time the iPad came out (April 2010), the Nook had already taken 10% of the market away from Amazon, leaving it with 80% of the market.
So I'm not really buying the idea that only the agency system stood between Amazon and market dominance; it's more like Amazon gained market dominance because they came up with an innovative product and were left alone in the marketplace for 2 years. (The Nook came out in May 2010).
So I'm pretty skeptical that Amazon will easily regain 80% of the market; there are too many additional players that didn't exist when Amazon first became dominant.
(And if the iPad, Kobo, and B&N didn't have 3 different flavors of DRM for the epubs, they might be a little more effective.)