Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres
Yup, the conspiracy sure hurt Amazon...  |
When the publishers guaranteed that the price was the same everywhere, and sold only books with DRM, the only way Amazon could ever stop being their biggest ebook retailer is if some other company comes out with a more popular ereader platform. For all the publishers' grandstanding, this was never about the Amazon ebook monopoly, it was about the fear that discounted ebooks would cannibalize their hardcover sales, which is where they make the most profits. By controlling (and raising) the ebook price, they could slow the adoption of ebooks and preserve the hardcover profits.
Apple, on the other hand, was in it to ensure that they didn't have to discount ebooks in order to compete with Amazon.