Publishers still missing the point on e-book prices

[cHex]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Anyway, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander? If Amazon can use the loss-leader strategy as part of its business plan to monopolizethe market, the publishers have every right to use countervailing strategies to block Amazon.

Oh, I wouldn't argue that the publishers don't have the right to price their books any way they desire. I'm just calling them foolish, in the long run, for the path they chose. They'll lose some sales and some authors, or else spend a lot of their profits on lobbyists.

[cHex]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Governments want to prevent monopolies developing

Really? It seems to me most monopolies I experience are government-created "for the public good." (E.g. electric company, gas company, cable company.) Even many regulations seem designed more to protect companies that lobby politicians and exclude start-ups than to provide more choices for consumers.

[elcreative]

So because the quality of the way content is displayed is different then our hypothetical 50" TVs (and please note that I did NOT originate this comparison so stop jumping all over my comments... go do the originator over) are all vastly different... a TV displays a broadcast programme, now whilst the quality of picture and sound may vary wildly, the content, of any individual programmme, is the SAME... two different books with different titles but physically the same size (dimensions and page count) do NOT have the same content and are NOT directly comparable... that is what I was putting over... and taking a joking poke at the OP of the comparison...

[CyGuy]

Originally Posted by elcreative

So because the quality of the way content is displayed is different then our hypothetical 50" TVs (and please note that I did NOT originate this comparison so stop jumping all over my comments... go do the originator over) are all vastly different... a TV displays a broadcast programme, now whilst the quality of picture and sound may vary wildly, the content, of any individual programmme, is the SAME... two different books with different titles but physically the same size (dimensions and page count) do NOT have the same content and are NOT directly comparable... that is what I was putting over... and taking a joking poke at the OP of the comparison...

That one (the TV comparison) was on me, not on elcreative! I deserve any criticism for the comparison.

The point I was attempting to make but seemed to have failed was this: TV panel manufactures were found to have participated in price fixing. These televisions all had different specs, sizes, features, colors, refresh rates, luminosity, etc. They were all very different. Yet they were all televisions. They were all selling televisions and could get together and influence market prices by agreeing to certain minimum prices etc.
The same holds for books. They all contain different content, they are different sizes, shape, composition, etc. But they are all books. The publishers could get together and agree to certain minimum prices etc.

[b0ned0me]

Originally Posted by CyGuy

TV panel manufactures were found to have participated in price fixing.
...
Yet they were all televisions.

You may have been misled by the complexities of the electronics industry. The cartel was in the supply of panels which are one (key) part of the television assembly. NameBrandTVCorp looking to manufacture a model of TV would go shopping for plugs, cases, circuit boards, power supplies and panels and surprisingly find that they could get price-competitive quotes everywhere apart from on the panels, because those suppliers had decided to get together and stitch up their customers.
By the time you as a consumer got to choose between 50 zillion different models of unique TVs, the damage had been done because every TV was x% more expensive due to the inflated cost of its components upstream.

The book analogy would be if suppliers of ink, paper or glue had made cartels to bump up the price of producing books.

[Barcey]

Originally Posted by b0ned0me

You may have been misled by the complexities of the electronics industry. The cartel was in the supply of panels which are one (key) part of the television assembly. NameBrandTVCorp looking to manufacture a model of TV would go shopping for plugs, cases, circuit boards, power supplies and panels and surprisingly find that they could get price-competitive quotes everywhere apart from on the panels, because those suppliers had decided to get together and stitch up their customers.
By the time you as a consumer got to choose between 50 zillion different models of unique TVs, the damage had been done because every TV was x% more expensive due to the inflated cost of its components upstream.

The book analogy would be if suppliers of ink, paper or glue had made cartels to bump up the price of producing books.

The e-book analogy would be if the resellers (Amazon, Apple, Kobo etc..) colluded to collect 30% of every sale rather then competing in a fair market. I'm not claiming that's what happened but the net result is the same. By the time the e-books get to the consumer they're already x% more expensive due to the inflated upstream profit taking and lack of competition.

[hedy]

sabredog
Geographically Restricted

"with NO geographic restrictions"

Yes Yes. It is totaly frustrating to want to buy and Geographically Restricted comes up.

Margit