Posts tagged ipad pricing
Publishers think they have a choice…
Feb 10th
Yesterday, a publisher (one) said they had no desire to switch to the iTunes Books Store “Agency model.” This model actually gives the publisher more control over their pricing and returns them 70% of the sale price while the distributor (Apple) keeps 30%. This one company says that they’ll make less money and won’t be able to pay the authors as much as they can with the “wholesale” model. In that second model, the distributor purchases the ebook from the publisher at wholesale pricing and then sells it at whatever price they choose. Amazon currently uses that model but is being forced by the other publishing companies to switch to the wholesale model.
So let’s get this straight: this “analyst” thinks that Apple’s whole iBook Store pricing scheme is screwed because one publishing company doesn’t like the wholesale model. That’s moronic. As if that company has a choice.
This is what Apple does: they re-define industries. If that company wants to sell books through the iBook Store, they’ll have to switch to the wholesale model because Apple will NOT sell books at a loss like Amazon. We’ve mentioned that before. They’re completely naive to think that Apple’s iBook Store isn’t where the “in-crowd” will be. We fully expect Amazon’s sales to plummet, dig themselves a grave, lie there and wait for someone to fill in the dirt.
Apple has better hardware and software… they’ve proven time and time again that with great hardware and software, people will pay more for a better experience. iPod: not the first mp3 player, but bundle it with iTunes… revolutionary. iPhone: definitely not the first smartphone, but bundle it with the largest App Store in history… revolutionary. Even the Mac: relatively great hardware bundled with the best OS in the world… revolutionary. Amazon’s 90% ebook market share doesn’t stand a chance. No one cares about saving $3 a book. They care about the experience.
We find it hilarious that this publisher thinks they have any say — at all.
Apple working to further iPad reading, eBooks to get more expensive
Feb 5th
Many sources are reporting that Apple (Steve Jobs, himself) has wined and dined with the biggest publishers of books, magazines and newspapers since the iPad announcement on the 27th of January. That’s great for us in a few ways… but there’s one big glaring issue with these conversations. Price.
Apple seems to be encouraging — some say offering flexibility — book publishers to increase their eBook prices. Publishers have been dreaming of better pricing for quite some time as Amazon’s $9.99 was actually costing Amazon money… and in return, it sold a lot of Kindles. Amazon has been pushing publishers into the $9.99 figure in order to make their Kindle more appealing to the consumer. As it turns out, that $9.99 price won’t be hanging around.
Three of the publishers currently partnered with Apple have told Amazon that they’re hiking prices or they’re leaving. This doesn’t come to us as a shocking revelation; you could even see Steve Jobs dancing around the issue with Walt Mossberg in a post-announcement interview. He specifically said that “the prices will be the same,” without giving any more information on the matter. Apple is not a company that will sell at a loss. They make very little off of their current digital download offerings, but there’s always something heading to their bank.
The fact that Steve has been spotted conversing with magazines and newspapers is great for us as avid readers. In an “off the record” meeting with The New York Times, Steve said that books were his first priority… but he’s working on additional reading content in the time between announcement and product launch. At this point, we’re hearing about discussions with The Wallstreet Journal, The New York Times, textbook publishers and even Time Magazine. Some critics scoffed and wondered, “Where’s my iMag Store?” Well, it looks like you’re going to get it.
