Intermarkets' Privacy Policy Support
Donate to Ace of Spades HQ! Contact
Ace:aceofspadeshq at gee mail.com Buck: buck.throckmorton at protonmail.com CBD: cbd at cutjibnewsletter.com joe mannix: mannix2024 at proton.me MisHum: petmorons at gee mail.com J.J. Sefton: sefton at cutjibnewsletter.com Recent Entries
Music Thread: Brazilian Music? Who'da Thunk It!
Hobby Thread - December 7, 2024 [TRex] Ace of Spades Pet Thread, December 7 Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Dec. 7 Notre Dame Cathedral - A story in the news with backstories The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival Daily Tech News 7 December 2024 Friday ONT Otterly Cute Cafe Ramaswamy, Musk Meet with Congressional Republicans to Talk DOGE Plus: Update on Assassin Absent Friends
Bandersnatch 2024
GnuBreed 2024 Captain Hate 2023 moon_over_vermont 2023 westminsterdogshow 2023 Ann Wilson(Empire1) 2022 Dave In Texas 2022 Jesse in D.C. 2022 OregonMuse 2022 redc1c4 2021 Tami 2021 Chavez the Hugo 2020 Ibguy 2020 Rickl 2019 Joffen 2014 AoSHQ Writers Group
A site for members of the Horde to post their stories seeking beta readers, editing help, brainstorming, and story ideas. Also to share links to potential publishing outlets, writing help sites, and videos posting tips to get published.
Contact OrangeEnt for info:
maildrop62 at proton dot me Cutting The Cord And Email Security
Moron Meet-Ups
|
« Louie Gohmert, Fellow Hordesman? More: Sen. Kirk Asks Holder if He Spied on Congress; Holder Says He Can't Answer That In An Open Forum | Main | Why Is the Walking Disaster Area Susan Rice Being Promoted to NSA? » June 06, 2013
The Apple E-Book Trial, Day ThreeA little background. People (including myself) have asked why the price of an ebook is so high, and and why it's gone up the past few years. When Kindle first came out, ebooks were super-cheap. Now they're not. This trial is about that. Apple proposed, and negotiated with the five biggest publishing houses, a different pricing model specifically intended to raise the price of e-books. Previous to this agreement, e-books had been sold outright to retailers, as goods intended for resale usually are. That is, Manufacturer X sells a Widget to Retailer Y for $10. Retailer Y now owns the Widget outright, and may sell it for any price it likes, whether for $20, or for $10.50, or even for $6, if it wants to sell it at a loss (or must sell it at a loss, due to poor sales). This is why Amazon usually offers such low prices (or had previously offered such low prices). They buy books from the publishers at the wholesale price. Usually a retailer would add, I don't know, a 50% markup. Instead, Amazon prices at a much smaller markup (maybe 5%), and sometimes even at cost and sometimes even at a loss. I suppose they do the latter with things like the last Harry Potter book, as a loss-leader to essentially buy new customers by offering them a price they can't refuse. Now the publishing houses don't like this. Why, I'm not sure, as they're still getting the price that they themselves set for their wares. But for some reason, especially with e-books, they felt the low prices were threatening in some way. Perhaps they felt the low prices of e-books would threaten their main business of selling physical books. Apple proposed a different pricing scheme: The publishing houses would not sell the book to Amazon, but rather permit Amazon to act as the agents of sale. Now, in this "Agency model," the publisher sets the price of the book, and then gives Amazon an "agent's fee" of 30% for each sale. Now Amazon can no longer set the price, as the publisher still owns the book until the moment of sale to the customer, at which point 70% of the publisher's price goes to the publisher and 30% goes to Amazon. So, Old Model: We sell a book to Amazon for $8, expecting them to charge something like $14. But they don't charge $14; they only charge $9. Amazon decides to make less money per sale in an effort to expand its business, and for some reason the publishers don't like this. Thus the New Model: The publisher sets the price at $14, period. Amazon cannot raise or lower the price because it doesn't own the book; it merely has an agent's right to sell it at that quoted price. Now the book sells for $14, as it must. 70% to the publisher, 30% to Amazon. This is why Amazon has been so insistent about saying "This price has been set by the publisher" regarding all those books with inflated prices. Now, the trial against Apple isn't about a new pricing model, per se; it's about the Bigs of the Industry getting together to mutually agree to set prices, using the Agency Model as the vehicle for doing so -- that is, it's about price-fixing by major players in the industry. The five publishing houses implicated in this scheme have all settled independently with the government. For some reason, no article gives me a straight answer as to whether this means the agency model is retired, or what. I think the agency model is not retired, as I just looked up Dan Brown's lame new book and it costs $13 and carries the advisory, "This price was set by the publisher." I think then all they agreed to do is not insist on actual price fixing (they had wanted to escalate the retail price of books between $13 and $15). So the US government is suing people and extracting agreements and yet not undoing the Agency Model scheme that raised prices. Apple insists it's done nothing wrong. Furthermore, their big trial strategy is to put Amazon on trial, claiming Amazon illegally sought to fix prices itself (albeit at a low level). This claim seems to concern Amazon negotiating for best-offered prices (a Most Favored Nation clause, that is, whatever the lowest price is that you offer to any other seller, you offer to Amazon). I'm not sure why this fairly-common clause constitutes price fixing or illegal behavior; I suppose it might be that when a company has near-monopoly position, things they had been permitted to do as non-monopolists become, by law, illegal. Whatever the theory, that's Apple's story and they're sticking to it. Apple also insists that they're going to embarrass Amazon by having evidence introduced that Amazon itself thinks that its Kindle format is inferior to Apple's format. The supposed legal consequence of this is to prove that Apple needs to have higher prices to support its supposedly-superior format, but that seems absurd; this is rote, mostly automated coding. How many times does a human hand enter the process of turning a computer file of a manuscript into an ebook? A tweak here and there, a read-through; but it's not like there's a lot of work going into this process. Yes, the iPad has a neat "turning the virtual page" animation when you turn the virtual page. But this is the product of software coded into the iPad -- it's not something that's coded into each and every new book. There's no justification for charging more per book for a cute bit of code you bought once with the iPad. The real point of this, it seems to me, is for Apple to crow that "Even Amazon thinks the Kindle sucks!" Which it doesn't, by the way. If I wanted an iPad I'd've bought an iPad. But Apple seems to think it can win some PR by trash-talking the Kindle at a trial about its own behavior. Sorry to be so biased here. All I know is that one company wants to sell me a book for $8.67 and another company has arranged it so that it is impossible for anyone to sell me the same book for less than $12.99. And no, the iPad's page-turning animation isn't worth $4.32 per book to me. The trial will last about three weeks, it's expected. | Recent Comments
Hal Dall:
"174 One of my favorite roads is the Canyon River R ..."
Notorious BFD: "When I was young and a little more foolish than I ..." AZ deplorable moron : "Four Corners is funny. Now that we have GPS it ha ..." Lizzy[/i]: "Love roadtripping, and have passed that on to my k ..." tankdemon: "Now I drive a big rig every day. The road loses it ..." JackStraw: ">>We have seen that America us full of beautiful t ..." MichiCanuck: "Word of advice. If you're driving through the Appa ..." Alberta Oil Peon: " Route 66? Pfft. My favorite highway is/was U.S. 5 ..." Thomas Bender: "It's been a slog, but I am entering the home stret ..." Lizzy[/i]: "Road trip games as a kid: Gameboy Mad Libs ..." Hadrian the Seventh: " Two more impressions from my travels. 1) Amer ..." Lizzy[/i]: "1 mile to the next Stuckey's! . . . 1/2 mile t ..." Recent Entries
Music Thread: Brazilian Music? Who'da Thunk It!
Hobby Thread - December 7, 2024 [TRex] Ace of Spades Pet Thread, December 7 Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Dec. 7 Notre Dame Cathedral - A story in the news with backstories The Classical Saturday Morning Coffee Break & Prayer Revival Daily Tech News 7 December 2024 Friday ONT Otterly Cute Cafe Ramaswamy, Musk Meet with Congressional Republicans to Talk DOGE Plus: Update on Assassin Search
Polls! Polls! Polls!
Frequently Asked Questions
The (Almost) Complete Paul Anka Integrity Kick
Primary Document: The Audio
Paul Anka Haiku Contest Announcement Integrity SAT's: Entrance Exam for Paul Anka's Band AllahPundit's Paul Anka 45's Collection AnkaPundit: Paul Anka Takes Over the Site for a Weekend (Continues through to Monday's postings) George Bush Slices Don Rumsfeld Like an F*ckin' Hammer Top Top Tens
Democratic Forays into Erotica New Shows On Gore's DNC/MTV Network Nicknames for Potatoes, By People Who Really Hate Potatoes Star Wars Euphemisms for Self-Abuse Signs You're at an Iraqi "Wedding Party" Signs Your Clown Has Gone Bad Signs That You, Geroge Michael, Should Probably Just Give It Up Signs of Hip-Hop Influence on John Kerry NYT Headlines Spinning Bush's Jobs Boom Things People Are More Likely to Say Than "Did You Hear What Al Franken Said Yesterday?" Signs that Paul Krugman Has Lost His Frickin' Mind All-Time Best NBA Players, According to Senator Robert Byrd Other Bad Things About the Jews, According to the Koran Signs That David Letterman Just Doesn't Care Anymore Examples of Bob Kerrey's Insufferable Racial Jackassery Signs Andy Rooney Is Going Senile Other Judgments Dick Clarke Made About Condi Rice Based on Her Appearance Collective Names for Groups of People John Kerry's Other Vietnam Super-Pets Cool Things About the XM8 Assault Rifle Media-Approved Facts About the Democrat Spy Changes to Make Christianity More "Inclusive" Secret John Kerry Senatorial Accomplishments John Edwards Campaign Excuses John Kerry Pick-Up Lines Changes Liberal Senator George Michell Will Make at Disney Torments in Dog-Hell Greatest Hitjobs
The Ace of Spades HQ Sex-for-Money Skankathon A D&D Guide to the Democratic Candidates Margaret Cho: Just Not Funny More Margaret Cho Abuse Margaret Cho: Still Not Funny Iraqi Prisoner Claims He Was Raped... By Woman Wonkette Announces "Morning Zoo" Format John Kerry's "Plan" Causes Surrender of Moqtada al-Sadr's Militia World Muslim Leaders Apologize for Nick Berg's Beheading Michael Moore Goes on Lunchtime Manhattan Death-Spree Milestone: Oliver Willis Posts 400th "Fake News Article" Referencing Britney Spears Liberal Economists Rue a "New Decade of Greed" Artificial Insouciance: Maureen Dowd's Word Processor Revolts Against Her Numbing Imbecility Intelligence Officials Eye Blogs for Tips They Done Found Us Out, Cletus: Intrepid Internet Detective Figures Out Our Master Plan Shock: Josh Marshall Almost Mentions Sarin Discovery in Iraq Leather-Clad Biker Freaks Terrorize Australian Town When Clinton Was President, Torture Was Cool What Wonkette Means When She Explains What Tina Brown Means Wonkette's Stand-Up Act Wankette HQ Gay-Rumors Du Jour Here's What's Bugging Me: Goose and Slider My Own Micah Wright Style Confession of Dishonesty Outraged "Conservatives" React to the FMA An On-Line Impression of Dennis Miller Having Sex with a Kodiak Bear The Story the Rightwing Media Refuses to Report! Our Lunch with David "Glengarry Glen Ross" Mamet The House of Love: Paul Krugman A Michael Moore Mystery (TM) The Dowd-O-Matic! Liberal Consistency and Other Myths Kepler's Laws of Liberal Media Bias John Kerry-- The Splunge! Candidate "Divisive" Politics & "Attacks on Patriotism" (very long) The Donkey ("The Raven" parody) |