Quote:
Originally Posted by DiapDealer
I fail to see why--if there are so many things other than price to compete on--the very first step publishers and Apple took to "spur ebook competition" was to level the price-playing-field. That dog won't hunt. "There's things other than price to compete on" is not a buyer's viewpoint. It's a seller's. And they're the only ones who think it sounds remotely reasonable.
As other's have pointed out: good deals can make crappy interfaces worth the hassle. And if Apple already had the leg-up on everyone else in the customer-experience/loyalty department, then surely they would have been able to compete at any price-point, no? They were better than everyone else at those other competitive things.
It's all fine and dandy to say that there's plenty of things to compete on other than price--and there IS! It's just that all of those things take a back (back, back, back) seat to price. We're talking about the internet, here. It's not like people have to drive across town to save a few bucks. They're "shopping" from their armchairs.
The things other than price are only relevant AFTER everyone's ability compete on prices have been stripped from them. And that only ever favors the big boys. That's not competition. That's restrictor-plate racing.
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It might take a back seat to price for you and others, but it's not an absolute. I couldn't begin to tell you want the prices of my normal groceries are at Publix verses Krogers. I can tell you that I much prefer the friendly atmosphere at Publix, so that is where I shop.
When there is one large corporation that has 90% of the market, then bringing in two more large corporations means more competition. That's kind of the definition of competition. More companies selling the same goods. From the publishers' point of view, having more companies out there meant that Amazon had less leverage over them. That is why the publishers wanted competition.
In general, all three of the big companies (Amazon, B&N and Apple) had their customers locked into a infrastructure. Of course, all three allowed side loading, but few customers are willing to jump through those hoops. So the real competition is for which infrastructure a customer wants to buy into. None of them ever competed on price, even during the time period when there was no agency.
Most here, especially those of us who use Calibre and who remove DRM are very much outiers in the overall customer base. It's a mistake to simply assume that everyone is hunting for the rock bottom lowest prices and is willing to jump through a lot of hoops to get it. Most customers are purely about convenience as long as the prices are what they consider reasonable.