US DOJ Plans Anti-Trust against iBooks (1 Viewer)

[Sam Posten]

Interesting perspective on this, Apple as reactive and not proactively aggressive:
http://qz.com/118293/the-steve-jobs-email-exchange-that-perfectly-captures-apples-strategy/

 

[Patrick_S]

Bottom line is Apple wanted to enter the eBook market on their terms. Unwilling to complete in the open market they selfishly created a horizontal price fixing scheme that ultimately hurt the consumer.

As for the article, the big take away is that Apple eBooks are an extremely poor value to the customer while Barnes and Amazon eBook are a superior value because of their easy portability.

You would be crazy to buy an eBook from Apple because of the closed ecosystem.

 

[Sam Posten]

Agreed, mostly, on your final sentiment. I continue to get 99% of my books via Kindle, but I remain mindful that it is just a bigger closed system! iBooks has better interactive features and better PDF handling so I DO use it too, and will buy specially priced stuff on it, but it severely lags behind for mainstream stuff

 

[Sam Posten]

It ain't over:
http://gigaom.com/2013/10/04/apple-officially-appeals-in-ebook-pricing-case/

 

[Patrick_S]

Big deal they announced that they were going to appeal the verdict the day is was announced.

 

[Patrick_S]

Since my last post in this thread Apple has been whining about the external compliance monitor the judge ordered.

They tried to have the current monitor disqualified but today the judge said no, and then they complained about the hourly fee the monitor charges and the judge said it was not surprising that, "lawyers get paid a lot of money."

Apple will of course appeal as soon as the judge issues her decision explaining her reasoning.

 

[Sam Posten]

Re: 'whining' - Did you actually read what the monitor was doing?http://www.salon.com/2014/01/12/amazons_bogus_anti_apple_crusade/

 

[Patrick_S]

Sure did Sam and whining is an appropriate characterization.

http://news.yahoo.com/apple-loses-court-bid-block-e-book-antitrust-001126395--finance.html

 

[Sam Posten]

Well, yeah of course she would say that. It was by her instruction. Higher courts might disagree. We'll see. Keep in mind that I'm not an Apple apologist on this one. I'd say the monitor's actions were onerous and over broad no matter what company was involved.

 

[DaveF]

The part of this I don't understand, is how a $1000/hr lawyer is appointed, but is incompetent, and must hire a second $1000/hr lawyer to do the job. Seems like the judge should have just appointed the second guy to start, and saved everyone some time and money.

 

[Sam Posten]

Exactly:http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2014/03/05/apple-economists-ebook-amici/

The provisions of the agreements at issue—agency, 'most-favored-nation' (MFN) clauses, and price caps—can be instrumental in facilitating new entry, particularly into markets with an entrenched, dominant firm. In this case, the District Court disregarded economic evidence and reasoning that these provisions served Apple's independent business interest in entering the e-book market, where Amazon was a near-monopolist.

The District Court also erred in equating price increases for some e-books with harm to competition. Apple's entry into the e-book retail market dramatically increased competition by diminishing Amazon's power as a retail monopolist (and its ability to pursue a "loss-leader" strategy that inefficiently priced e-books below their acquisition cost). That increased competition gave publishers more bargaining power, thereby bringing ebook pricing closer to competitive levels.

 

[Sam Posten]

Derp.

Good news! You are entitled to a credit of $15.35 for some of your past Kindle book purchases. The credit results from legal settlements reached with publishers Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Penguin in antitrust lawsuits filed by State Attorneys General and Class Plaintiffs about the price of eBooks.

Via Amazon this morning.

 

[Michael_K_Sr]

What a shock...

NY Times: Amazon Escalates Its Battle Against Publishers

 

[Edwin-S]

Authors, publishers, and consumers are getting what they deserve. After all, all three of those groups are the ones who created the nightmare monopoly called Amazon. Congratulations to all three groups on helping to create a monstrosity that has all but destroyed neighborhood booksellers and other online competition and now sits in the position to dictate what books get listed, what publishers get listed and what people have the opportunity to read. I wish I could feel sympathy but.....bed....lay in it, because every person or group who has bought from or supplied Amazon has helped make it.

 

[Sam Posten]

It's over:http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/07/16/apple-settles-ebook-price-fixing-complaint-with-states-consumers-could-pay-450m?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

 

[Sam Posten]

Amazon goes full agency:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/04/14/what_the_amazon_harpercollins_deal_means_for_e_book_pricing_and_publishing.html?wpsrc=fol_tw