Kindle US Marketshare at 45%, Sony at 30%

[GA Russell]

Kali, in my view you're still not appreciating the power Amazon has to negotiate.

An eBook is like a download record album. eMusic sells download jazz music for (last I heard) 40 songs for $14.99. Amazon can easily obtain a deal with the publishers that the wholesale price for the "introductory books" will be closer to $1. It's all profit for the publisher.

An article about the Kindle in the New Yorker a couple of weeks ago showed, and this was verified to me by a couple of Kindle-owning friends, that Amazon typically discounts its eBooks only 10-20% off the pbook price. The $9.99 figure is only for the New York Times best sellers, and is not typical. (If you don't think that the publishers would negotiate regarding a best seller, fine. Amazon can exclude them from the introductory offer.)

So if Amazon obtains a $1 wholesale price for those "introductory books" and "sells" them for $20 each, the customer would receive 15 "introductory books". And as Griffinwing says, the offer can be limited, let's say to a year.

It is in the publishers' interest for the public to take to eBooks because the cost to the publisher is so close to zero. It is also in their interest to increase the number of book readers. I believe that new Kindle customers are likely to download books they would not otherwise buy.

So this is basically giving out free samples of a new product, an old marketing concept. Amazon is moving its Kindles, and the publishers are giving out extra copies of eBooks that cost them nothing to produce. Win-Win.

[RWood]

Also on many (most|all) e-books, Amazon allows you to download the first chapter at no cost. This allows one to graze possible titles like we once did in bookstores -- read a bit of the book to see if we like the style, word choices, and get a better understanding of the book than the short blurb on the back cover.

Fictionwise provides a part of the first chapter on its web site and I have used this feature many times.

[HarryT]

Mobipocket also allows you to download book samples; the default, the first 5% of a book.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Kali, in my view you're still not appreciating the power Amazon has to negotiate.

Oh? So, why didn't they get better wholesale rates from the start?

Even if they did drop wholesale prices on "introductory" ebooks to $1, if Amazon makes $7 of profit per ebook, with a $300 credit a customer would still need to buy 43 ebooks -- after getting 30 free ebooks -- for Amazon to break even. And there's no way to contractually obligate that customer to buy 43+ ebooks ($430) without ruining the customer experience. This also results in, say, $170-200 or more of lost revenue for the publishers. So, it still doesn't work.

I think you're laboring under the common illusion that ebooks have zero costs for the publishers, which is not the case -- in no small part because most books do not break even, let alone turn a profit, in the first place. I.e. if you have a book in the back catalog that is still $30,000 in the hole, you still need to sell a lot of ebooks with a good wholesale price to break even -- and back catalog is not exactly the Land of High Volume Sales for an individual title. Nowadays, the costs of printing a back catalog title can even be mitigated by POD options. Printing and distributing a book is only 12% or so of the total cost of publishing a title, not 90%.

So it may be in publisher's interests for ebooks to become common (though I suspect it favors retailers, readers and the environment much more than publishers), but the shift to ebooks is not going to reduce the costs of publishing a title nearly as much as most people expect.

You may be right about one thing though, namely that publishers are doing free samples. They're pricing selected ebooks by unknown / low-volume authors at $0.00, on the premise that this will build interest in those authors and drive sales of other books. However they are doing this in a much more targeted and controlled way than indiscriminately slashing wholesale prices, i.e. they can select an author whose work isn't selling much anyway, thus the giveaways are much more cost-effective than, say, losing $7+ of revenue on a bestseller. It is also unclear whether the strategy is effective, especially if it gains wider use.

[KarlB]

Originally Posted by griffonwing

To all who have quoted me, telling me I was wrong, and that I was contradicting myself, I would like to point out that in those posts, I was voicing an opinion. How can "Any device which is not user-friendly (replaceable battery, user-defined storage like SD cards, etc..) I consider to be crippled." be wrong? It is one sentence where the subject (in blue), is followed by the verb (green). I am stating that this is my opinion.

Peh. Stating an opinion that is narrow-minded, illogical, unsupportable, idiosyncratic and plain silly falls under any sensible definition of "wrong".

[griffonwing]

Originally Posted by KarlB

Peh. Stating an opinion that is narrow-minded, illogical, unsupportable, idiosyncratic and plain silly falls under any sensible definition of "wrong".

Thank you for you highly-insightful opinion.

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

I fully agree. Merely based on personal instincts I would have said at least 70:30 in favor of Amazon.

How would you account for the MR polls that say otherwise? They may not be scientific but are they that far off?

[volwrath]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Kali, in my view you're still not appreciating the power Amazon has to negotiate.

I agree with you in this sense, but its the authors who will get burnt under such a system.

I think you will Sony come roaring back with the epub format. I know I will be buying more from the sony store once epub becomes fashionable.

Originally Posted by Alexander Turcic

I fully agree. Merely based on personal instincts I would have said at least 70:30 in favor of Amazon.

Im with you, I thought that Amzn must be blowing out Sony in the US. So glad I am wrong

[GA Russell]

I too am very surprised that Sony has such a high percentage of the US market. In the past year or so the Kindle has received a great deal of free publicity in the newspapers I have seen, and I would say 100% of the references to eBooks.

And what I have read suggested that what we here know as "eInk" is unique to the Kindle. There was never a mention that Amazon's competitors also have that feature.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

I too am very surprised that Sony has such a high percentage of the US market. In the past year or so the Kindle has received a great deal of free publicity in the newspapers I have seen, and I would say 100% of the references to eBooks.

And what I have read suggested that what we here know as "eInk" is unique to the Kindle. There was never a mention that Amazon's competitors also have that feature.

I think there are two main reasons for Sony having such a large presence in the US market, despite Amazon getting all the publicity. First, they had over a year's head start selling "eInk" devices to the US market. Second, and more importantly, they have by far the best retail presence of any reading device.

Yes they would see the Kindle advertised, but when they went to the store to look for a device they found a Sony. Any city of 20,000 or above would likely have multiple outlets where someone could see, touch, and buy the Sony 505. Amazon's marketing campaign helped Sony's sales too.

[Xiaopanda]

Ok, For me, Carbon foot print is one thing, Environmental Impact is another.....

What is the impact (total) of the manufacture of an Ebook? What rare metals (if any) are used?
What is an Ebook's bio-degradeablitly?
When we upgrade (2-5yrs if PC trends are indicative) what's the impact of that?

I have no answers, I simply think that Carbon footprint is not a be all and end all measure. There is more to consider........ This is MY opinion, and I am happy to be wrong, ignorant or simply pessimistic....

[DrMoze]

Originally Posted by Xiaopanda

I have no answers, I simply think that Carbon footprint is not a be all and end all measure. There is more to consider........ This is MY opinion, and I am happy to be wrong, ignorant or simply pessimistic....

No, you're on-base. "Carbon footprint" figures and diatribes are pure drivel. Especially when applied to a small, niche market device. Look at the millions of various flat-panel displays being constantly manufactured and tossed out. Or, the billions of worthless items produced constantly around the world just to gather dust in rarely-frequented stores.

I'm a scientist with common sense. I'll stand by my reasoned opinions.

[ProDigit]

I think the Co2 savings depend entirely on how much one is using the device.
I have used my PRS to read 3 books in the past month, but the 2 months before that, I had read nothing.
I guess there's a big difference between those reading 2+ books per week, and those reading 3 books the first 3 months, and then perhaps 2 books per year (which is the majority of users I think).

On another note, my PRS-505 starts getting a grey screen. Background isn't as white anymore as it was upon purchase in beginning 2008. Any one have the same issues?

[fugazied]

I just don't see such an explosive growth in ebook devices to be honest. The problem is the fact that mobile phones (smart phones like iphone) and netbooks (tablets and 9-13" laptops) encroach on sales of ebook readers. Mobile computing will be huge, but if the readers continue with this limited functionality they just won't shape up to tablets and phones that do another 10 things other than open ebooks.

[lev]

opps. my misunderstanding. deleted...