Amazon is either in the principal’s office or hiding in the science lab

5 comments on “Amazon is either in the principal’s office or hiding in the science lab”

1. John McFetridge says:
   February 4th, 2010 at 9:58 am

   That’s right, Macmillan books are still not for sale on Amazon in the US (Amazon Canada wasn’t involvd in this at all).

   So let’s remember, there are lots of other places to buy Macmillan books in the USA.

   (I wonder how close I can get to self-promotion here before George smacks me…)

2. George says:
   February 4th, 2010 at 10:27 am

   Surprisingly close, I’d say.

3. Bud says:
   February 4th, 2010 at 5:08 pm

   Amazon shouldn’t try to save the Kindle Device, they should just try to keep Kindle eBooks available. Being a bully about it is the wrong tact. Let people read Kindle books they have purchased on their iPads. Those buying an iPad may already have a Kindle, and prefer it for reading because they are not distracted BY THE WEB.

   Trying to marry the Kindle bookstore to Kindle Hardware ONLY is going to backfire in multiple ways. Amazon has a reputation as the consumers friend, being a price controlling, distribution denying Bully is only going to make folks think of them as if they are WalMart.

4. tolmsted says:
   February 5th, 2010 at 10:20 am

   OK, I’m sorta’ recycling my post from another site – but I’m at work and should be..well…working…

   I feel the need to point out that the Amazon $9.99 model is based on the iPod 99-cent model originated by Apple. The reasons Apple is objecting/not going along with it is because a. it will hurt e-book readers in general to lose that (The Nooks is using that same $9.99 price point) and b. the iPad sales are not dependent on it being sold as an e-book reader, so what do they care? (it’s just a really big iphone – no digital ink folks).

   So, personally, I don’t think Amazon is being any more ridiculous than Apple was with it’s 99-cent iPod pricing – (and everyone was ok with that because iPod’s were soo pretty?). I love my e-reader – but I won’t be paying $15.99 for e-books/digital content that is only really usable on one platform, that I can’t re-sell or lend to friends. And I’m frankly sceptical about how much the $9.99 price point on e-books is actually hurting the publisher when I can buy James Patterson’s new release in hardcover from B&N for $16.79 and a paperback copy of The Book Thief (a NYT Bestseller)for $8.63 – AND have it all shipped to me for free.

   With the release of the iPad Macmillan saw an opportunity to push, and now Amazon is pushing back. Apple, book publishers and Amazon are all just doing what big businesses do – trying to protect their profit margins. And who is going to lose? – the authors and readers. This is FAR from a case of David of standing up to Goliath.

5. tolmsted says:
   February 5th, 2010 at 10:29 am

   Bub -

   By the way, I believe that Kindle books can be read on the iPad… at least there is an app that allows you to sync your kindle to your iPhone, so I’m assuming it will cross over.

   And I do agree with you that its wrong (and disturbing) that ebooks bought on Amazon can only be used on the kindle, and ebooks bought on B&N can only be used through the Nook and music downloaded from iTunes can only be used on my iPod. But that seems to be the established model, and short of legislation being passed making it illegal (which isn’t such a bad idea – I mean, if Congress can get involved with steroid use in baseball, what the hell? They aren’t getting anything else done) I don’t see how that can be stopped at this point.

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