Quote:
Originally Posted by llreader
Well, we still have the choices, just not good ones or "fair" ones. We can choose not to consume, or consume something else. I posted in one of these threads that classic, unencumbered texts are a good read, and there is enough to keep you busy for a while. A sharp drop in sales may be the corrective stimulus needed.
|
This would be true if they actually wanted ebooks to succeed. Remember they feel that sales of ebooks cannibalize from sales of paper books. If ebooks don't sell well what do they care? They didn't spend money to develop the readers for ebooks and they make no money on the sale of ebook readers. If ebooks fail and everyone goes back to buying paper copies and they still make money. There is currently no incentive for the publishers to lower prices. If the ebook doesn't sell they don't loose anything (it cannot cost that much for electronic copies of books, the author most likely submits them in this form nowadays). If the do sell at $15 or more, well thats just great. Many of you have said you would go to the library, which in turn would raise the demand for an item in that area and in turn the libraries would then purchase more of that author's books when they come out.
Amazon though has an interest in the ebook market succeeding. They spent a ton money developing the Kindle devices and make money off of each device they sell. If ebooks start to fail to sell due to prices Amazon will be the one to suffer as Kindle sales fall off and interest dies. It remains to be seen if Barnes and Noble or Sony will care as well. In the case of Sony based on their interest in their ereader prior to the Kindle I doubt they will care if the interest slows down to the few gadget type people out there that would spend a couple hundred of dollars for a device that allows them to read an ebook that costs as much as an actual physical copy.
The iPad is not marketed as an ereader nor will it be. Sure there is an app that allows this, from Apple as shown in the press show but it has been Apple's policy to not allow apps that compete with Apple's interests and if Apple has made a deal to sell ebooks via itunes or something similar, that would definitely be in their interests. Because of this I doubt there will be the Kindle app for this device or that any other reader software will become available on it.