... iPad a bad deal for newspapers

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

But, like Apple, without rooting the device you can only buy apps through B&N's app store. And unlike Apple, B&N don't offer competing apps like the Kindle one.
So the issue doesn't arise, as you aren't allowed the option of having the competing content provider.
(And point 1 is also true of Apple, they have only ever said they want their 30% of in-app purchases. The argument has been around them forcing providers to offer the option of in-app purchasing alongside out-of-app purchasing.)

Apple's always insisted that anyone who sells things on their platform cannot offer the same content for a lower price elsewhere.

[ardeegee]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Iguess I'm the dinosaur in the crowd.

...

I feel it is enough that I spend my workday in front of the computer without spending all my leisure time there, too.

Yep.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

But, like Apple, without rooting the device you can only buy apps through B&N's app store. And unlike Apple, B&N don't offer competing apps like the Kindle one.

But you are mixing apples (sorry about the pun) and oranges. Apple promoted the iPad as a tablet COMPUTER not as an ebook reader. The iPad was never promoted as nor intended to be a dedicated ebook device. In contrast, the Nook, Sony, and Kindle are not multifunction computers; they are and have always been promoted as and intended to be devices dedicated to reading ebooks.

The Nook and Sony, in fact, do allow you to buy ebooks from any ebook store other than Apple and Amazon. The difference is only in how you put the ebooks on the device -- download from the their stores or sideload from elsewhere. The Kindle is more closed but even it will let you read ebooks purchased elsewhere.

Apple is a significantly more closed system than any of the others.

[Namekuseijin]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

I no longer read newspapers. I no longer read magazines. I no longer buy books. I no longer go to the library. I no longer watch TV news. I no longer buy CDs. I no longer buy DVDs.

All Hail the Mighty Net

All very true to me a well, except I now buy ebooks. Pbooks are just a historic accident I have to put up with if there's no ebook version available anywhere...

[Kali Yuga]

H'm, a newspaper wrote an article about how, uh, newspapers have to pay a fee to publish to the iPad. Yeah, there can't possibly be any conflict of interest there.

I'm also a bit curious: Do the news readers prefer an opt-in or an opt-out here? I don't recall anyone saying yet that opt-out is somehow superior to opt-in, this may be a first.

Originally Posted by Richey79

Well, Murdoch is busy writing the manual on how not to adapt....

Well....

While Murdoch has made some moves that turned out to be awful (notably buying MySpace), he has also pushed his business into the digital era. For example, News Corp put out the first iPad-specific daily news app, "The Daily."

I don't think they're great at it, but it's not for a lack of trying.

Originally Posted by Richey79

I read more - and higher quality - news and commentary now, totally for free, than I ever did when I used to pay daily for print newspapers.

Not for long.

Someone has to pay for that process. Craigslist killed classifieds revenues, and Internet ads can only take a company so far. News outlets are slowly shifting away from a "purely free" model towards a mix of free and paid content.

It might not work, but if it doesn't, chances are that a lot of news outlets will go bust.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

Apple's always insisted that anyone who sells things on their platform cannot offer the same content for a lower price elsewhere.

Actually, as far as I know that only involves ebooks. It doesn't extend to videos or apps, and as far as I know it doesn't include newspapers either.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by rhadin

But you are mixing apples (sorry about the pun) and oranges. Apple promoted the iPad as a tablet COMPUTER not as an ebook reader. The iPad was never promoted as nor intended to be a dedicated ebook device. In contrast, the Nook, Sony, and Kindle are not multifunction computers; they are and have always been promoted as and intended to be devices dedicated to reading ebooks.

Right, but the Nook Color falls between the two. It is a tablet, and B&N will have an app store, not just a dedicated reader like the Nook. (Indeed once rooted it seems to be a very good deal for an Android tablet.)