US sues Apple and publishers over e-book prices

[EmptyTimCup]

I would never purchase a eBook from Apple - the prices suck

although I do take some issue with a lot of Kindle Prices being 'too high' IMHO

I mean really of you are saving paper, ink, and gas to move printed books around, they should be 25% of the cost of a Dead Tree Edition ......

US sues Apple and publishers over e-book prices


Technology giant Apple and major book publishers are being sued by the US Department of Justice over the pricing of e-books.

The US accuses Apple and Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Simon and Schuster and Penguin of colluding over the prices of e-books they sell.

This lawsuit is over the agency model where publishers set the prices of e-books, rather than sellers.

The lawsuit comes a day after Apple surpassed $600bn (£379bn) in value.

The increase affirmed its position as the world's most valuable firm.

hmm Greedy Publishers ..........

Agency versus wholesale

Electronic books are sold according to a different formula from that governing the sales of physical books.

For most physical books publishers set a wholesale price, often about half the cover price, and then let a retailer decide how much they actually want to charge for the title.

This model was initially adopted for e-books but has since been changed for what is known as an agency model.

Under this scheme, publishers set the price of a book and the agent selling it gets a 30% cut. This model was adopted by publishers largely at the prompting of the late Steve Jobs.

The shift to agency pricing was also seen as a protective measure to head off attempts by Amazon to corner the market in e-books. It had been aggressively cutting prices to win customers over to its Kindle e-book reader.

Amazon once tried to apply the wholesale model on book publishers - but was rebuffed by the publishers.

 

[Nickel]

I would never purchase a eBook from Apple - the prices suck

although I do take some issue with a lot of Kindle Prices being 'too high' IMHO

I mean really of you are saving paper, ink, and gas to move printed books around, they should be 25% of the cost of a Dead Tree Edition ......




hmm Greedy Publishers ..........

It is pretty stupid that Amazon offers most paperbacks at a lower price than Kindle editions. If I'm buying a book, 9 times out of 10 I'm buying an e-book because I don't want them cluttering up my house.

 

[Pete]

I was wondering just a few minutes ago "Self, I wonder if the price of ebooks will ever be so important that the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT NEEDS TO INTERVENE!

Jeezus effing ......doesn't the Justice Department have anything better to do?