Quote:
Originally Posted by Pardoz
Wall Street Journal do? "Apple's business model for books, which the company has kept under tight wraps, shifts the focus away from the bargain-basement prices Amazon has made popular, according to publishers that have met directly with the company. Apple is asking publishers to set two e-book price points for hardcover best sellers: $12.99 and $14.99, with fewer titles offered at $9.99. In setting their own e-book prices, publishers would avoid the threat of heavy discounting. Apple would take a 30% cut of the book price, with publishers receiving the remaining 70%." (Bolded for emphasis).
I recall it being mentioned, but it quickly got drowned out in the cries of "Green! Purple! Green! Purple!".
*shrug* Suit yourself. If you've an alternate theory for why Apple decided to push for higher book prices, I'm perfectly happy to listen.
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It is an interesting theory, one I will keep track of. No one else seems to believe that Apple, who isn't even in the market yet, is imposing prices on the publishers. It will be interesting to see how many of them go with Macmillan and if anyone who doesn't go with Apple adopts the same pricing structure. I can't see how selling less books is in Apple's interest. Breaking Amazon's "monopoly" (edit: they don't have a monopoly), certainly.
I just don't buy any explanation that goes "Apple is doing this stupid thing because they don't understand what they are doing". Apple introduces one or two new products a year (if that), and they tend to prepare them carefully, along with the software and marketing ecosystem that goes with them. If they proposed this, they have an angle, and I don't understand why they would want to jack up prices on what is already a marginal product. That certainly isn't going to grow the market. Maybe they want to kill the market, but I don't see how that helps them at all.
It isn't clear that Apple was pushing for higher prices, even from that article (assuming these rumors are an accurate representation of what really happened). We don't know what the publishers were offering - they could have wanted to set the ebook prices to the same as hardcover prices. Also, the article says the price would only be for bestsellers, and that isn't what seems to be happening now, so there is some sort of information missing.
I would love to read more, if you see anything around the internet.