Enemy of My Enemy
This week's New Yorker has an execellent article by Ken Auletta that looks at how Apple's iPad has taken on Amazon.com's Kindle in the e-book space, and what its advent has done for publishers.
The takeaway: by opening up the distribution market (via Apple's iTunes store) and platform, Apple has effectively broken Amazon.com's initial monopoly on pricing. Until the iPad launch, Amazon had capped e-book prices at $9.99, much to the consternation of the publishing industry. Apple's entrance made some early buzz (the "iPad as Kindle-Killer" meme was ubiquitous, and, I argued, premature) but also forced open the rift between Amazon and New York.
The article is worth reading to the end. It really gets at the heart of what's shaping the future of the book industry.
Comments
Which side are people on?
I feel that everyone thinks that the Kindle will die because most people don't care about a matte screen (you said there was a "minority" that disliked glossy screens). That aside, I still feel like Apple is hurting the ebook market, at least from a consumer perspective.
Amazon was fighting for the consumer, championing lower prices for an electronic copy for a book, which in reality, is little more than bits of data. Yes, someone had to write it, and yes, it has to be proofread, edited and marketed, but it is still basically nothing. Why would anyone want to pay $15 for nothing? I think that this is a major mistake on Apple and the publishing companies' part. As eBooks become more popular, piracy is likely to follow. And with higher prices, more people are going to be reluctant to spend the cash for a legitimate copy when they can spend a few seconds online and find a free one. That's just my two cents.
In this situation I picture Apple as the boyscout with a goody-two-shoes smile helping a 25 year-old in the prime of his life cross the street.
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