Amazon removes Macmillan books | via CNET News
Apple will allow publishers more leeway to set their own prices for e-books. Although the prices will be tethered to print book prices by a formula that will generally yield prices between $12.99 and $14.99 for most fiction and general nonfiction, that is significantly higher than $9.99 discount that Amazon offers on its Kindle.
Publishers have been concerned that such pricing devalues books. Tensions between publishers and Amazon have been rising as publishers have withheld select e-book editions for several months after the release of hardcover versions of books.
It has long been held by those in the music industry that Apple, via the iTunes music store, was selling music for far less than it was worth—but, of course, far more than the zero they were making on illegally downloaded music. It will be interesting to see if the publishing industry, after the iPad is released, feels the exact opposite of those in the music industry. That Apple, while still keeping prices low, kept them high enough for publishers and authors to make a reasonable profit.
This also begs another question. Will Amazon update the Kindle app and the Stanza app for the iPhone so that it competes directly with the iBooks? (Amazon acquired Lexcycle, the company that created Stanza, early last year.) And, since these two apps now compete directly with Apple created apps, will Apple allow the Kindle and Stanza apps on the iPad?
iBooks is a very elegant app, and some people will use it and buy books using the new Apple bookstore simply because they like Apple and they like the iBooks app. But others, if given the opportunity via other book apps on the iPad, will buy books based solely upon their price.
I know that I’ve done this very thing. I have both the Kindle app and the Stanza app on my iPhone, but the books that I’ve purchased have mostly been from Amazon because the price for e-books on Amazon is several dollars less than the price for the same book on Stanza’s store. (Why these stores are not exactly the same since Amazon bought Lexcycle is anybody’s guess). So, if there’s a Kindle app for the iPad along with the iBooks app on the iPad, and prices are less on the Kindle app than they are on the iBooks app, will Amazon ultimately force prices down on e-books? Or, if the iPad becomes as ubiquitous as the iPod, will some publishers eschew the Kindle, as Macmillan is presently being forced to do by Amazon, in favor of the iPad?
I think the end result, again, only if Apple allows other e-book readers on the iPad, is some combination of the two. Just like I still buy MP3s from both Amazon and iTunes it’s quite possible that I will buy books from both Amazon and Apple. (The only fly in the ointment of this argument is that I still only use one app/device for listening to this music… iTunes/iPod. Unless Apple is able to read Amazon’s e-books, you will require two different apps for reading. And if there is no Kindle app on the iPad, two completely different devices.)
My hope is that Apple’s entry into the book market will force everyone to up their game in both the quality and features offered in the e-book apps and, more importantly, in how the content works. I’ve said a couple of times (here and here) that if I can subscribe to magazines using a book app I’m in. But the subscription scheme needs to be intelligent, not lame, which is exactly how it is on the iPhone right now. All my reading, all my subscriptions, all in one place, and incredibly easy to access, and I think that it’s a win for all.
Now I just have to sit back and wait.