Apple-Amazon Book War Intensifies
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Apple is investing in a new market -- e-books. The company plans to release an electronic book to compete with Amazon, a company that has control over the market with its Kindle.
Despite the fact that Apple has not entered the market yet, the company is finding itself competing with Amazon.
The latest sting in this "book war" came when Amazon pulled books from Macmillan, 0ne of the largest publishers in America.
The dispute was over pricing on e-books on the site. Amazon sells its books for $9.99 or less. Apple planned on selling its books for 30 to 50 percent more.
However, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said, "The prices will be the same."
Jobs believes people will use Apple's e-book store as a way to drive up Amazon's prices.
During the launch of Apple's iPad, Jobs touted other publishers that we need to watch out for. These were Pearson's Penguin Group, News Corp.'s HarperCollins and Hachette Book Group, and CBS's Simon & Schuster.
Currently, each publisher is selling through Amazon, but that is not expected to last long.
5 comments:
I think that the fact that the e-books are becoming portable is a good idea. The idea that Apple will be competing for sales is actually not that big of a surprise to me, because with this day and age people are constantly competing to make profit. All companies will copy what other people put out. It is just the way of bussiness.
I don't understand the part about "Jobs believes people will use Apple's e-book store as a way to drive up Amazon's prices." Wouldn't people want to drive prices down no matter which store it is? Also, wouldn't Amazon try to make their products cheaper so more people buy from them? Either, I am really confused, or Jobs doesn't make any sense.
Hanna I agree with that. It is just used as an excuse to let them feel better about copying other companies ideas and helping them make their own profit out of it. It tends to become redundant after a while, and pretty soon they will be trying to make the next big thing before they have to "borrow" another idea.
I personally would not want an e-book. I think it is easier to read things on paper than on a digital page. However, I like that it will save paper, therefore I hope e-books and things like it will begin to boom. I just hope the factories where they are made are eco-friendly.
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