09-20-2012, 02:31 PM | #16 |
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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. |
09-20-2012, 03:38 PM | #17 |
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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. |
09-20-2012, 03:59 PM | #18 | |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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Quote:
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). |
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09-20-2012, 04:46 PM | #19 |
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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.
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09-20-2012, 06:01 PM | #20 | |
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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. |
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09-20-2012, 06:12 PM | #21 |
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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.
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09-20-2012, 06:32 PM | #22 | |
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Quote:
We get lot of that in the reccomendations forum. But a lot of reader owners prefer to simply read rather than discuss reading. |
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09-20-2012, 06:41 PM | #23 | |
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09-20-2012, 06:43 PM | #24 |
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I is perspicacious.
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09-20-2012, 06:49 PM | #25 | |
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09-21-2012, 02:37 AM | #26 |
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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!"
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09-21-2012, 04:42 AM | #27 | |
The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠
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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. |
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09-21-2012, 06:20 AM | #28 |
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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.
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09-21-2012, 07:29 AM | #29 | |
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09-21-2012, 07:32 AM | #30 |
The Dank Side of the Moon
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