Will Amazon really have the nerve to charge $400 to $500 for its Kindle e-book reader, a price range that the New York Times recently mentioned?
Encouragingly the September 17 issue of BusinessWeek reports: “Some industry observers think Amazon will hold the price below that of the $299 Reader from Sony Electronics.”
DRM one reason for half-hearted approach?
The headline, by the way, is “Amazon Does Downloads, Sort Of: Why its push into digital delivery of books, movies, and music seems halfhearted.” Every wondered why Amazon, although it owns Mobipocket, doesn’t list Mobi books on its own site? BW’s take is that “The economics just don’t add up. And that’s unlikely to change with the company’s plan to ratchet up its digital merchandising this fall…
“…as long as digital music and e-books come with heavy restrictions on how and where consumers can use them, the market will be limited and rights holders will have the power to shake down sellers.”
Time for Amazon to rely more on small publishers?
Hmm. What if small publishers without the current DRM fixations can team up with Amazon to offer reasonably priced alternatives? Time for large publishers to stop the insanity? I’m for the prosperity of houses of all sizes. That’s why I’m endless appalled by the failure of the big guys to experiment seriously with social DRM and no DRM. And by the way, Amazon, this means you, too. Why do you insist on all the books in your Mobipocket store being DRMed? If BizWeek is right, and if traditional DRM messes up your profit margins, wouldn’t you be better off fighting it rather than promoting it?
And speaking of insanity among the big traditional houses: Check out Jim Huang’s blog, where one observation in particular resounds amid other wise ones. In a nutshell, he says they can come up with some very good books, but their business practices truly suck. (Via Peter Brantley.)
Related: How Amazon’s Kindle might HARM e-books, unless Jeff Bezos wises up about the F Word.
Also of interest: Why Amazon works, in Booktwo.org. Could the big reason be not convenience but the fact that Amazon engaged people in the books for sale? And might this be yet another argument for publishers to move toward offering forums and other goodies inside books? Remember , the more that can happen within the book itself, the less dependence on Amazon itself.
Related: USA today reports that $399 is the usual ceiling most people would pay for gadgets. If they bring it under $400, that would mean a price war in the $200-400 space.
Amazon sold our e-books for many years, in PDF, LIT, and then Mobi, via distributors LightningSource and Mobipocket. Then they took them out of the online catalog, because e-book sales were soon going to be handled exclusively by a new joint venture with Mobipocket (now wholly owned by Amazon).
Although we signed a contract with the new venture many months ago, the books are still not available at Amazon, and the people I have contacted at the joint venture cannot give me any estimate as to when things will finally be worked out. Is Amazon paralyzed with fear and doubt? Why not just put the books back on sale and see what happens?
[…] Kindle might cost LESS than the $299 Sony Reader – Lest we forget: Amazon’s ereader is coming. Hope it looks better than the prototype shots. […]