Quote:
Originally Posted by fugazied
Thank you Telstra and John Howard I believe? Howards wanted to sell off the telco at the highest price possible, so didn't split the physical infrastructure up, leaving Telstra in a position of power they could exploit. US CEOs like Saul Trujilo (not sure on name/spelling) of course took advantage of this near monopoly of infrastructure.
I have some friends in Australia and they are always complaining about the state of affairs down there. Telstra price gough wherever they can, holding back internet speeds and data allowances so they can squeeze every cent out of their lines.
Apparently the Aussie government was going to split Telstra up but they has fallen off the agenda as they instead spent time trying to censor the Internet!
Anyway that's kinda offtopic. Australia has a lot of avid readers apparently so should already be embracing e-readers. I have many friends down under with Kindles and one with a Sony. Australian publishers/bookstores better get their act together.
|
Well apparently the main job for Sol to do when he came on board was to split Telstra, instead he dramatically dropped the share price, increased customer complaints by apparently 250%, and left with a huge payout. And don't talk to me about censoring the internet.....so much for living in a country with free speech (well it will soon be free speech as long as they let you).
You're right, Australia does have a large reading market and the ebook done properly will take off. As I said before, some international player will have to bring the ebook market here, every big profitable market here in Australia is either ignored by local business or sold offshore to someone else.
The longer they wait the more time people will have to find workarounds to geographic restrictions and utilise shop-bitorrent to satisfy their reading needs. I for one am finding it hard at times, and getting frustrated with some online ebookstores where the geographic restrictions aren't actually indicated until you get through and ready to checkout.
www.readwithoutpaper.com is fairly price competitive but their current offerings are a little small (should come right with time), but the other Australian ebookstores are insane with price and even more limited selection.