Quote:
Originally Posted by Solicitous
Actually I don't think it is a case of Economies of Scale (yes I have done economics). We are in a current situation where as a consumer we are not really restricted to local markets, we are living in a global market. Gone are the days of only being able to buy a book/cd/computer/whatever from the local guy, we can now buy nationally or internationally with the click of a button.
Where the high price comes from IMHO is local book publishers are just starting to get their feet wet, coupled with customs duties + gst etc.
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I mostly agree, except I don't buy the international argument for Ebooks (yet) - except for the technically savvy. You need a US credit card and IP address for a lot of vendors, or other workarounds.
I'd say it is still national economies of scale at the core of the issue - maybe I should say economics of a large markets/sales versus small (I did not do much economics
). Kudos to DAdirect for investing what can't be an insubstantial sum to get readwithoutpaper up an running for what must be a tiny market - OZ ebook readers. They must be hoping to ride the wave of local adoption, and I hope they do.
I suspect local distributors/publishers are in fear of local adoption as they might eventually have to compete on a international level with multinationals like amazon with razor thin margins, and without the benefit of the shipping costs for real books as a barrier. Their comfy book distribution business can't be looking that comfy long term, at least in its present form. They will have to evolve, just like the music industry has. So you are right in that they are just getting their feet wet.
cheers
- Kevin