MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Amazon’s Book Monopoly : A Threat to Freedom of Expression?

darryl · 01-22-2016, 07:01 PM

A little dose of reality for those who perhaps have not given this much thought. It is no accident that Amazon is in the position it is. Amazon has shown amazing foresight. Amazon has planned long-term, and for the most part the market has behaved as expected or better, and where it has not Amazon has adjusted. And Amazon has invested. All of the years it was mocked for not returning a dividend to its investors. All of the years it was mocked for not making a profit, though it seems now that it was investing every cent that might have been profit back into the business. Building an infrastructure. Distribution centres. Expanding according to its plans.

Although I am a big fan of Amazon, I too would like to see at least a close second. But lets face it. Apple and Google, as big and profitable as they are, are years behind Amazon in infrastructure and technology. They would need to spend substantial sums and time to challenge Amazon. And most assuredly Amazon would not be standing still during that time. And why would either Google or Apple want to do this. Already Apple did not want to enter the EBook market if it had to compete on price with Amazon, and so facilitated the agency price-fixing cartel. For the moment, Amazon does not threaten either company, though who can say in the longer term?

KKR in her blog post at http://kriswrites.com/2016/01/20/bus...usiness-model/ predicts that Amazon will be on top for many years but not forever. As she puts it, 20 years ago B & N was the "Big Kahuna". Personally I think any threat to Amazon will come not from the corporate giants I referred to earlier, but from some new innovation that it fails to react to in time. I don't know that even Amazon can overcome the so-called "Innovator's Dilemna".

01-22-2016, 07:01 PM	#46
darryl Wizard Posts: 3,108 Karma: 60231510 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura H2O, Kindle Oasis, Huwei Ascend Mate 7	A little dose of reality for those who perhaps have not given this much thought. It is no accident that Amazon is in the position it is. Amazon has shown amazing foresight. Amazon has planned long-term, and for the most part the market has behaved as expected or better, and where it has not Amazon has adjusted. And Amazon has invested. All of the years it was mocked for not returning a dividend to its investors. All of the years it was mocked for not making a profit, though it seems now that it was investing every cent that might have been profit back into the business. Building an infrastructure. Distribution centres. Expanding according to its plans. Although I am a big fan of Amazon, I too would like to see at least a close second. But lets face it. Apple and Google, as big and profitable as they are, are years behind Amazon in infrastructure and technology. They would need to spend substantial sums and time to challenge Amazon. And most assuredly Amazon would not be standing still during that time. And why would either Google or Apple want to do this. Already Apple did not want to enter the EBook market if it had to compete on price with Amazon, and so facilitated the agency price-fixing cartel. For the moment, Amazon does not threaten either company, though who can say in the longer term? KKR in her blog post at http://kriswrites.com/2016/01/20/bus...usiness-model/ predicts that Amazon will be on top for many years but not forever. As she puts it, 20 years ago B & N was the "Big Kahuna". Personally I think any threat to Amazon will come not from the corporate giants I referred to earlier, but from some new innovation that it fails to react to in time. I don't know that even Amazon can overcome the so-called "Innovator's Dilemna".