Quote:
Originally Posted by pwalker8
The publishers wanted agency pricing because Amazon was trying to squeeze them, but then again, you knew that, you just want to hate on Apple. Amazon brought agency about with their predatory pricing. You should be hating on them.
|
I'm not convinced that Amazon's pricing was predatory. They had a maximum price for most books of $9.99 but that was for ebooks, not print books. It costs less to sell ebooks than print books. The warehousing is electronic. The delivery is via the internet, which was already there. And there's the long tail issue.
Of course publishers have been explaining for years why it costs as much to sell ebooks as print books but I'm pretty sure that's just about keeping prices high. The problem for publishers is that they make less on cheaper books even if the costs are correspondingly less. 50% of $100 is less than 50% of $50. Of course 50% is my made up example percentage.
Amazon reduced prices and kept them reduced for years so the new pricing must have been realistic. If they'd done it for a few months or a year to establish themselves and put someone out of business so they could then raise prices again that would be predatory. Selling ebooks by making the price reflect real cost isn't predatory.
If anything, at least in this situation, the publishers pricing is the more predatory. That's not an accusation; just a comparison.
I don't think anyone will question that Amazon plays hardball. That's their job. They're in business to make money and they do. But predatory? I'm not convinced.
Barry