gotta love amazon's pluck... are they sitting back and feeling sorry for themselves, facing challenges from the ipad and the agency model? not one bit! no sir, they're doubling down. that cute kindle commercial -- once a rarity on t.v. -- has now become a staple, playing all hours of the day. it's as if amazon considers that the debut of the ipad _justifies_ and _bolsters_ their belief in their machine. and the agency model? well, gee, it's fairly easy to see how amazon can live with a 30% markup on big-5 books, seeing how they used to use many of 'em as loss-leaders. when the product that you used to _literally_ pay people to purchase is suddenly dumping money in your pocket, you have funds to buy more things like t.v. commercials... so i love all of that. but this last thing is most excellent. even though the big-5 publishers have upped the cost of the e-books they sell through amazon, amazon has been concentrating on giving its customers an attractive option. specifically, they have been concentrating on loading the store with e-books that are priced in the $5-$9.98 range.
http://kindlehomepage.blogspot.com/2010/05/power-of-catalog-kindle-undercuts... they're spitting in the face of the publishers who want to elevate the price of e-books, by making 'em work harder and harder against competitors that offer a lower price... as a direct consequence of severely curtailed demand at the higher prices, combined with renewed competition at these lower pricepoints, the big-5 publishers are learning they have to lower their prices back to the dreaded $9.99. except instead of getting the kindle subsidy that they used to get when they were receiving $12.50 (50% of a $25 list), those publishers are now getting $7 (70% of the $9.99 sale). just as most of us observers predicted back when it occurred, the agency model has backfired -- very badly -- on the big-5. they thought steve jobs was their savior, when really, he was pulling a fast one on them (albeit doing it for their own good, since these corporate fat-cats are delusional about pricing)... you just watch -- at the end of their one-year "trial period", the big-5 will find a way to quietly shelve the agency model and return to their former way of doing business. but alas, nothing they do can save them now. their goose is cooked... kudos to amazon! -bowerbird