MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Amazon says 'will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan's terms'

wallcraft · 01-31-2010, 06:41 PM

This is great news for the independent ebook stores, such as Books on Board, because now every single US ebook store will be selling ebooks at exactly the same price. So there are only two discriminators: a) customer service, and b) device lock-in. Devices with wireless access to a home store have some lock-in, but only Amazon with its AZW format has a solid near monopoly on its Kindle owners for ebooks. There may be lost Kindle device purchases because it no longer has lower ebook prices than its competitors, but the Kindle momentum is strong and the Kindle store still have the most extensive catalog.

The biggest looser is B&N, because they can't provide discounts to keep Nook owners loyal (and get more Nook purchases) and they generally have bad customer service. Fictionwise (owned by B&N) has loyal customers, but they won't be able to discount ebooks from major publishers any more.

01-31-2010, 06:41 PM	#13
wallcraft reader Posts: 6,977 Karma: 5183568 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Mississippi, USA Device: Kindle 3, Kobo Glo HD	This is great news for the independent ebook stores, such as Books on Board, because now every single US ebook store will be selling ebooks at exactly the same price. So there are only two discriminators: a) customer service, and b) device lock-in. Devices with wireless access to a home store have some lock-in, but only Amazon with its AZW format has a solid near monopoly on its Kindle owners for ebooks. There may be lost Kindle device purchases because it no longer has lower ebook prices than its competitors, but the Kindle momentum is strong and the Kindle store still have the most extensive catalog. The biggest looser is B&N, because they can't provide discounts to keep Nook owners loyal (and get more Nook purchases) and they generally have bad customer service. Fictionwise (owned by B&N) has loyal customers, but they won't be able to discount ebooks from major publishers any more. Last edited by wallcraft; 01-31-2010 at 06:43 PM.