Quote:
Originally Posted by guyanonymous
Thinking about it though, Apple may sell a lot of over-priced e-books. After all, people are going to be paying $800 (with accessories) for an overpriced tablet!  |
Their MP3s/videos/tv shows are priced moderately, we should jump the gun on that one yet. It depends on how well Jobs negotiated with the publishers I suppose.
The only things we need to fear are anti-capitalistic mechanisms which may be employed by e-reader manufacturers or publishers.
In a capitalist system, the complex competition between Apple, B&N, Amazon, Sony, Publishers, independent publishers and other ebook devices would create great market competition and a lot of supply. We'd see ebook prices drop as more people embraced the technology.
However we have formats getting in the way. Kindle owners can only read certain formats, Sony owners read others and Apple read others. The various stores only support certain formats. Some do it to lock in the market share they obtain. It gets in the way of consumers changing e-readers (which may screw up their exiting e-book libraries) and for getting the best prices (if a reader has a device not compatible with the Apple shop for example).
That's what we have to fear - but Apple has said they will embrace epub. But what DRM will be on the ibookstore books and will they support un-drmed books from other sources. Will the Kindle ever support epub and will a Kindle owner be able to buy from the Apple store. Same goes for B&N devices and Sony.
That's what I am afraid of - proprietary formats hindering competition in the market place to the detriment of comsumers. If we get epub everywhere then potentially we will have a better outcome.