Ebook Price War

[SleepyBob]

That's rather biased for Calibre, though. There were probably a dozen version upgrades in that time, and the majority of users will have downloaded several of them, since Calibre prompts you by default.

Tools, by contrast had 2 or 3 (?) versions in that time, and upgrading isn't nearly as straightforward, so non-technical people would avoid doing so, unless they needed one of the enhancements.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tango7

amazon not price fixer
others apple b&n book publishers are

Sure.
But if the prices are fixed, nobody can undercut Amazon. Ever. On *any* title. That makes commiting to Amazon's walled garden risk-free.

In a competitive marketplace Amazon comes out cheaper *overall* but can be undercut here and there on specific titles. Which is how things were in 2009: Amazon ebooks were generally cheaper but if you shopped around you could find a sale or discount coupon or loyalty program that made some titles cheaper elsewhere. (That is how Amazon itself operated: they heavily discounted some high-visibility titles and more lightly discounted the majority of the books. They lost money on a few, made money on most, stayed in the black at the bottom-line.)

If you commit to Amazon in a price-competitive market they will usually, but not always be cheaper. Commit to Amazon in a price-fixing marketplace and they will *always* be the same or less.

And in the latter case, there is never a downside to buying a Kindle: the device will be cheaper, it will have the biggest ebookstore catalog, and the ebook prices will never be better elsewhere.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

So you are saying that half of Calibre users are followers of the Apprentice?

No, not at all. That is the number downloaded from the secondary server. I would expect the numbers downloaded from their primary server to be many times that.

But another way to look at it is to consider that during that time calibre went through many versions, so some people would have been downloading multiple times.

I think the most that can be said is that the number of calibre users and the number of tools users is of approximately the same order of magnitude (but I suspect that there are more calibre users).

But both are a LOT less than the number of people using ebook readers. Perhaps by two orders of magnitude, since calibre users are in the six (perhaps seven) figure range, while ebook users are in the eight to nine digit range (world-wide).

[charmian]

Regarding a price war on hardware devices, isn't that what we are already seeing now? Or have been seeing in the past few years. Amazon lowering the price by $10 to me is not insignificant, given that it represents somewhat more than 10% price cut.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

But both are a LOT less than the number of people using ebook readers. Perhaps by two orders of magnitude, since calibre users are in the six (perhaps seven) figure range, while ebook users are in the eight to nine digit range (world-wide).

Exactly.
Essentially, something like 90% of ebook readers don't seem to mind the current walled garden business model for commercial ebooks. (Could be as high as 99% but it is doubtful it is anywhere as low as 80%.)

Something worth remembering because the likes of us are hardly representative of the broader market and the powers that be are not particularly interested in catering to us.

[Kumabjorn]

I would suspect that MR members aren't exactly representative for the general e-book reading public, but looking at the members logged page at any time there is usually a lot of lurkers, hence a desire for knowledge about both e-books and readers that goes beyond the membership here.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

I would suspect that MR members aren't exactly representative for the general e-book reading public, but looking at the members logged page at any time there is usually a lot of lurkers, hence a desire for knowledge about both e-books and readers that goes beyond the membership here.

Sure.
We get lot of that in the reccomendations forum.
But a lot of reader owners prefer to simply read rather than discuss reading.

[carpetmojo]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I'll note that the 5.1 tools which were up from 22nd May to 10th September got about 130,000 downloads..............
I agree that that's not a lot compared to the number of people buying ebooks.........................................
It makes 130,000 seem quite small.

Surely it also makes them seem like a select group of discerning individuals of great perspicacity and wisdom ?

[DiapDealer]

I is perspicacious.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I'll note that the 5.1 tools which were up from 22nd May to 10th September got about 130,000 downloads.

I agree that that's not a lot compared to the number of people buying ebooks. Indeed, according to this survey, 5% of USA population read more than 50 books a year. That's around 15 million people.

It makes 130,000 seem quite small.

But that does not include any of those 130,000 giving the tools to others. So I do think more people have the tools then the count shows.

[crossi]

People don't care about walled gardens NOW. Wait a few years until their current ebook readers die and they are outraged because suddenly all their books are unreadable on their new device. "What's wrong with all my Amazon books? None of them will open on my new Nook!"

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But that does not include any of those 130,000 giving the tools to others. So I do think more people have the tools then the count shows.

Quite possibly. And there's nothing to stop others mirroring the tools archive, and downloads from there won't have been counted either.

But in April this year, 19% of Americans owned an ebook reader, and 62% of them owned a Kindle. That's 60 million people with an ebook reader, of which 38 million are Kindles!

Clearly, there are lots and lots of people who are not (yet) concerned about the DRM on their ebooks.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

But are you more likely to buy Amazon (or whoever) hardware knowing that you'll always get the best price on the books?

No, I'm not, especially as Amazon's price for the books I am interested in is rarely more than a few cents better anyone else's price and is usually the same price. I never buy "best sellers", which are the books that get the steepest discount at Amazon.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by TGS

According to this there's an ebook price war going on, and authors are becoming concerned...diddums.

Did the relentless endless spiral of computer hardware prices destroy the computer industry, did walmart destroy everything else?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

I is perspicacious.

Yeah ya are.