How much should an e-book cost?
With the kerffule this week over the US Department of Justice’s case against Apple and the large publishing houses, it’s interesting to look at what an e-book should actually cost.
Amazon has been selling e-books at around $9.99, which was a price point that created a lot of traction for the e-book industry and saw it taking a large part of book sales, even increasing the number of books bought per reader per year.
However, since the introduction of the agency price model, facilitated by Apple, the price of e-books has risen. According to several media sources, Amazon was making a loss on the sales.
For many, it’s confusing as to how it is possible that an e-book can even cost so much; given that the marginal cost …
Amazon should partner with RIM to build a smartphone
Successful mobile phone ecosystems in the future are going to feature a whole range of devices to access data and consume content. Amazon has a strong presence with its Kindle range of devices, and arguably is strong on the web, but has little or no direct control over smartphones.
It has borrowed space on smartphones today with its kindle book reader for iOS and Android, and has created an Android app market. But it doesn’t control the underlying platforms so is susceptible to competitive pressures from Google or Apple.
Amazon’s Platform Strategy
With the introduction of the Kindle fire for $199 it’s clear that Amazon is using the razor-blade model to make device hardware cheap and wireless transport of their content cheap. Amazon’s goal with hardware is to …
iPad 3′s Retina Display better than Kindle
According to a report by Dan Frakes in Macworld, the new iPad’s Retina Display is better to read on than the Kindle’s:
I go a step further: The new iPad is the best device I’ve ever read on.
he new iPad has even made me forego my Kindle e-reader. I’ve long been a Kindle fan, because I’ve felt that when it comes to ebook reading, text just looked better and more paper-like with the Kindle’s e-ink technology than on the backlit screen of an iPhone or iPad. But text is so clear on the new iPad that over the past two weeks, every time I would have previously put the iPad down and reached for my Kindle, I’ve kept the iPad in hand.
The implications of this are …
