Why is the Sony eBook store rasing prices? - Page 2

Penforhire · 01-10-2008, 11:50 AM

They're recovering from our HOLIDAYGIFT?

HarryT · 01-10-2008, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jamesdmanley

pretty much all video game consoles are sold at a loss. the profits are made back in licensing fees for the software. most printers are sold at a loss and the profits made back in the ink. this is far from an unsustainable business model

But one which only works with "closed" systems. Buy a PS3 and you can ONLY buy games from Sony, so they profit from every game sold. You can't afford to lose money on something like the Reader, because the buyer may well not spend one penny on books from Sony's bookstore!

jamesdmanley · 01-10-2008, 01:48 PM

not necessarily, there are many other publishers out there other than sony (granted they still have to pay royalties). on the printer side there is a rapidly growing industry based solely around refilling and refurbishing used printer cartridges yet brother, canon, hp, etc. havent gone out of business yet or discontinued selling printers

edit: the original quote was referencing amazon (kindle) which is, for most lazy/non-technical people a closed format similar to a gaming console, so the comparison is still valid

The Alternative · 01-10-2008, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Does anyne here remember the TI-994a computer? Texas Instruments sold it at a loss and was hoping the peripherals/software would make up for it. That did not work and the TI-994a stopped being sold. If Amazon is doing the same with their ebooks, then you can expect Amazon to one day stop selling them.

Texas Instruments actually sold this unit for $525.00 when it first came out (and at far from a loss). The rarer TI-99 sold for a whopping $1,100.00. TI only dropped the pricing much later when other computer companies began mass-producing low priced competitive machines (i.e. Commodore International). I personally believe that Amazon, as well as other booksellers, will sell more electronic books in the future, rather than less.

For a more detailed history behind the eventual price reduction of the TI-99/4A see the article at Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TI-99

AnemicOak · 01-10-2008, 09:41 PM

I still have a TI-99 (bought new way back when) & it's still in use, though not by me. My grandmother uses it to play Yatzee, Wheel of Fortune & Hangman.

BooksForABuck · 01-10-2008, 11:50 PM

It's true that businesses can be built on selling a loss-leading product and making it up on related items and peripherals. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. As has been observed, it drives the printer business.

In the eBook business, I think Amazon is doing two things. First, they are doing a bit of introductory pricing. Their best-seller pricing is a bit of loss leader stuff--$10 for a book that probably costs them more than $10. Whether they sustain this indefinitely is hard to predict but the loss leader market works best when you give away the razor and sell the blades, not the other way around.

I think, though, that Amazon has realized something important, which is that they can make excellent money taking a 20-40% cut (and passing the savings to the customer) rather than the 55% cut they take on paper books. With paper books, there are huge costs of handling. With eBooks, their existing transaction software pretty much handles everything. Since they discount many paper books, I don't think it's a huge surprise they discount eBooks, but it surprised me they discounted them as heavily as they do.

Rob Preece
Publisher, www.BooksForABuck.com

ebookreader · 01-11-2008, 07:01 PM

I actually have been comparing prices against Amazon for New Releases/Best Sellers for the past few weeks and the results are astounding. Amazon has all Best Sellers/New Releases quoted at $9.99 with few exceptions. Sony is selling the same books for in some cases more than double that price (check out Follett's new book for example).

Sony's prices are also changing daily and not for the better. Less than two weeks ago A Thousand Splendid Suns was advertised for $13.95 on Sony (which was close to the Amazon price -- and in fact Amazon may have been a dollar or so more). Since then Sony has increased the price at least twice and as of today, the same book is more than $18. Amazon in comparison dropped their price to $9.99.

I wrote to Sony but have not received a response as of yet. A dollar or two in either direction is expected but not $5 to $10 per book when you are looking to build a library.

Sony is sure to lose serious ebook readers if this keeps up.

dhbailey · 01-12-2008, 07:57 AM

This morning A Thousand Splendid Suns is 12.99 -- I didn't check it out yesterday, so perhaps it dropped in the middle of the night.

I wonder if Sony Connect prices are automatically linked to something from the publishers and the publishers can't make up their minds as to the prices while Amazon isn't worrying so much about making a profit as they are worried about garnering sales for the Kindle.

dhbailey · 01-12-2008, 08:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ebookreader

I actually have been comparing prices against Amazon for New Releases/Best Sellers for the past few weeks and the results are astounding. Amazon has all Best Sellers/New Releases quoted at $9.99 with few exceptions. Sony is selling the same books for in some cases more than double that price (check out Follett's new book for example).

Either there are gremlins moving prices around at Sony Connect or you've got a glitch in your computer or they change prices in the middle of the night, but Follett's new book is currently priced at $12.99. Hardly "double that price."

JSWolf · 01-12-2008, 08:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BooksForABuck

Rob Preece
Publisher, www.BooksForABuck.com

I know I'm going a bit off-topic here, but is there any reason you don't sell LRF format eBooks for the 500/505? Converting from HTML or LIT is really simple.

acemccloudxx · 01-13-2008, 07:27 PM

Quote:

Sony is sure to lose serious ebook readers if this keeps up.

I haven't even managed to successfully download my 100 free classics yet. At this rate, I'm not likely to consider buying anything from their store at all.

Ace

VikingDave · 01-14-2008, 12:48 PM

The selection itself is enough to go elsewhere. Unless you are looking for best-sellers, Sony has little to offer by comparison. Also, I like the idea of being able to establish a Library that will last well beyond the LRF format.

edsohsmith · 01-14-2008, 05:06 PM

Quote:

Either there are gremlins moving prices around at Sony Connect or you've got a glitch in your computer or they change prices in the middle of the night, but Follett's new book is currently priced at $12.99. Hardly "double that price."

Ken Follett's World Without End was definitely $24 a few days ago.

flamaest · 01-14-2008, 05:30 PM

I used to have a TI-994a. I actually got the floppy disk drive for it in 1986 for $400 [with like 100 games] and I was only 13 years old so it killed my piggie bank. But, I loved loading games from the disk instead of tape, it was much faster than cassette tape..

F.

Cthulhu · 01-15-2008, 09:41 PM

My father was all ways a gadget freak, and he bought a TI-99. I received a number of grade school certificates because I could program BASIC & LOGO (sadly, never really went farther than that). We had the sketch pad, the expansion base, printers, voice synthesiser, just about everything. I wonder what the correction of $525 what the equivalent to that is in today money. Food for thought regarding the high price of some gadgetry.

As for the Connect Store pricing, it is indeed strange that the prices moderate so much. These are books, not a traded commodity. Maybe there *is* a link we're missing, so we should try to correlate MSNBC and SONY Connect so that we may game the system. ;-)

01-10-2008, 01:48 PM	#18
jamesdmanley Groupie Posts: 156 Karma: 817 Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: houston Device: prs-500	not necessarily, there are many other publishers out there other than sony (granted they still have to pay royalties). on the printer side there is a rapidly growing industry based solely around refilling and refurbishing used printer cartridges yet brother, canon, hp, etc. havent gone out of business yet or discontinued selling printers edit: the original quote was referencing amazon (kindle) which is, for most lazy/non-technical people a closed format similar to a gaming console, so the comparison is still valid Last edited by jamesdmanley; 01-10-2008 at 01:50 PM.

01-10-2008, 11:50 PM	#21
BooksForABuck Zealot Posts: 123 Karma: 150001 Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Long Beach, CA Device: Color Nook, Kindle 2, Palm III, eBookWise, HP Jornada	Loss leaders It's true that businesses can be built on selling a loss-leading product and making it up on related items and peripherals. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. As has been observed, it drives the printer business. In the eBook business, I think Amazon is doing two things. First, they are doing a bit of introductory pricing. Their best-seller pricing is a bit of loss leader stuff--$10 for a book that probably costs them more than $10. Whether they sustain this indefinitely is hard to predict but the loss leader market works best when you give away the razor and sell the blades, not the other way around. I think, though, that Amazon has realized something important, which is that they can make excellent money taking a 20-40% cut (and passing the savings to the customer) rather than the 55% cut they take on paper books. With paper books, there are huge costs of handling. With eBooks, their existing transaction software pretty much handles everything. Since they discount many paper books, I don't think it's a huge surprise they discount eBooks, but it surprised me they discounted them as heavily as they do. Rob Preece Publisher, www.BooksForABuck.com

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
PRS-900 Sony ebook prices raised	sirmaru	Sony Reader	1	05-26-2010 12:37 PM
Sony Outlet Store Prices on Refurbs???	advocate2	Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links)	5	08-13-2009 12:51 AM
Sony ebook prices	nwinter	Deals and Resources (No Self-Promotion or Affiliate Links)	15	02-19-2009 09:58 PM
Have prices gone back up @ Sony Ebook store	Rocketime	Sony Reader	7	04-30-2008 04:51 PM
Help us find Sony store prices that are out of whack	Bob Russell	Sony Reader	100	08-13-2007 11:50 PM

01-10-2008, 11:50 AM	#16
Penforhire Wizard Posts: 2,230 Karma: 7145404 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Southern California Device: Kindle Voyage & iPhone 7+	They're recovering from our HOLIDAYGIFT?

01-10-2008, 09:41 PM	#20
AnemicOak Bookaholic Posts: 14,391 Karma: 54969924 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Minnesota Device: iPad Mini 4, AuraHD, iPhone XR +	I still have a TI-99 (bought new way back when) & it's still in use, though not by me. My grandmother uses it to play Yatzee, Wheel of Fortune & Hangman.

01-11-2008, 07:01 PM	#22
ebookreader Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jan 2008 Device: Sony PRS-505	I actually have been comparing prices against Amazon for New Releases/Best Sellers for the past few weeks and the results are astounding. Amazon has all Best Sellers/New Releases quoted at $9.99 with few exceptions. Sony is selling the same books for in some cases more than double that price (check out Follett's new book for example). Sony's prices are also changing daily and not for the better. Less than two weeks ago A Thousand Splendid Suns was advertised for $13.95 on Sony (which was close to the Amazon price -- and in fact Amazon may have been a dollar or so more). Since then Sony has increased the price at least twice and as of today, the same book is more than $18. Amazon in comparison dropped their price to $9.99. I wrote to Sony but have not received a response as of yet. A dollar or two in either direction is expected but not $5 to $10 per book when you are looking to build a library. Sony is sure to lose serious ebook readers if this keeps up.

01-12-2008, 07:57 AM	#23
dhbailey Guru Posts: 604 Karma: 733 Join Date: Mar 2007 Device: HP iPAQ211 / PRS 500, 700 and 505	This morning A Thousand Splendid Suns is 12.99 -- I didn't check it out yesterday, so perhaps it dropped in the middle of the night. I wonder if Sony Connect prices are automatically linked to something from the publishers and the publishers can't make up their minds as to the prices while Amazon isn't worrying so much about making a profit as they are worried about garnering sales for the Kindle.

01-14-2008, 12:48 PM	#27
VikingDave Member Posts: 16 Karma: 470 Join Date: Dec 2007 Device: PRS-505	The selection itself is enough to go elsewhere. Unless you are looking for best-sellers, Sony has little to offer by comparison. Also, I like the idea of being able to establish a Library that will last well beyond the LRF format.

01-14-2008, 05:30 PM	#29
flamaest Groupie Posts: 155 Karma: 1044459 Join Date: Jul 2007 Device: prs-500	I used to have a TI-994a. I actually got the floppy disk drive for it in 1986 for $400 [with like 100 games] and I was only 13 years old so it killed my piggie bank. But, I loved loading games from the disk instead of tape, it was much faster than cassette tape.. F.

01-15-2008, 09:41 PM	#30
Cthulhu Technologist Posts: 488 Karma: 585237 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: I'm between Cities Device: SONY Reader PRS-500	My father was all ways a gadget freak, and he bought a TI-99. I received a number of grade school certificates because I could program BASIC & LOGO (sadly, never really went farther than that). We had the sketch pad, the expansion base, printers, voice synthesiser, just about everything. I wonder what the correction of $525 what the equivalent to that is in today money. Food for thought regarding the high price of some gadgetry. As for the Connect Store pricing, it is indeed strange that the prices moderate so much. These are books, not a traded commodity. Maybe there is a link we're missing, so we should try to correlate MSNBC and SONY Connect so that we may game the system. ;-)