This blogger has maintained in posts including this that the book publishing industry has chosen to go the way of music producers by burying their heads in the sand. iIn particular, I am of the view that it is preposterous to sell digital copies of books at the same cost as the paper version. For a while Amazon seemed to be acting in the interest of the reading public by ensuring that new publications were available at lower cost in digital format and thereby ensuring that the gains from digitization broke the existing model of book publication and pricing.
Indeed, there was a danger that Amazon could have used its market power to depress the margins for publishers. And then came Apple with a deal for the publishers for an agency model for digital books on the iPad. This gave greater power to the publishers as they were able to apply new clout to ensure that books were sold through an agency model with retailers keeping 30% of the sale price. The effect of this is that prices of books not only went up but that the odd fact of digital books going at higher costs became real again.
Juliette Garside reports on the effort by antitrust officials in Europe who are questioning the new arrangement. Their main claim, with which I am in agreement, is that the agency model has placed consumers at a disadvantage in the sense that books have gone up by a margin of up to 50%. To my mind, there is no price war anymore as the publishers are back in the driving seat, with Apple's help, and are dictating costs and seeking uniform prices again. Like most windy antitrust cases, this will probably go on for long but on this score, i am confident that the bureaucrats are on the side of the consumers.
Indeed, there was a danger that Amazon could have used its market power to depress the margins for publishers. And then came Apple with a deal for the publishers for an agency model for digital books on the iPad. This gave greater power to the publishers as they were able to apply new clout to ensure that books were sold through an agency model with retailers keeping 30% of the sale price. The effect of this is that prices of books not only went up but that the odd fact of digital books going at higher costs became real again.
Juliette Garside reports on the effort by antitrust officials in Europe who are questioning the new arrangement. Their main claim, with which I am in agreement, is that the agency model has placed consumers at a disadvantage in the sense that books have gone up by a margin of up to 50%. To my mind, there is no price war anymore as the publishers are back in the driving seat, with Apple's help, and are dictating costs and seeking uniform prices again. Like most windy antitrust cases, this will probably go on for long but on this score, i am confident that the bureaucrats are on the side of the consumers.
1 comment:
Thanks for the compliment. Sure you will find more things worthy of your time.
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