Apple Set to Match Amazon's $9.99 Price Point for eBook Best Sellers?
App Advice reports that earlier this week it had an opportunity to view Apple's forthcoming iBookstore and saw that the vast majority of titles from The New York Times' best sellers list currently appear priced at the same $9.99 price point favored by Amazon's Kindle Store.
Anyway, at the moment, out of the 32 eBooks featured in the New York Time's Bestsellers section, 27, including the entire top 10 are priced at $9.99.
Of the remaining five titles from the best sellers list, the highest price listed is $12.99.Apple's iBookstore pricing model, based on that used in its App Store, involves publishers setting sales prices with Apple taking a 30% cut of revenue. That model had been thought to be pushing most best seller eBook titles to a range of $12.99 to $14.99, above the $9.99 price point seen with Amazon's offerings. But a subsequent report suggested that the higher price range is merely a ceiling and that publishers will be permitted and even encouraged to offer lower price points such as those apparently being seen in the iBookstore.
The iBookstore is set to launch in the U.S. alongside the iPad on April 3rd.
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28 months ago
Hopefully, in the long run, this will end up being a lot of sturm-und-drang, and the prices of new release eBooks aren't going to rise dramatically... After all the ruckus with Amazon's store, it's still relatively rare that the books I want are >$10. OTOH, the sellers have yet to make good on their suggestion that they would lower prices over time to be commensurate with paperback -- best-seller and literary fiction still seems very rarely less thn $8.99....
28 months ago
why is this even a suprise?
jobs said it quite clearly to mossberg on camera at the handson area at the apple event
jobs said it quite clearly to mossberg on camera at the handson area at the apple event
28 months ago
Or this may just be a screenshot of a "$9.99 Section". But you never know. I am not buying the iPad for e-books at all but if they were $9.99 I might occasionally. However, I would never pay $15 for an e-book.
28 months ago
Or this may just be a screenshot of a "$9.99 Section".
The books in the image are the current NY Times bestseller fiction and non-fiction lists.
28 months ago
I'm all for lower prices, but I don't see $12-$15 for a new book release as unreasonable, it's still a substantial discount off a physical book. I suppose it depends on whether you like to keep your books around on shelves, or lend them out a lot. I used to collect books (and in fact I still have a lot of them), but in practice I rarely lend them out and if you've ever had to move an apartment or house full of books, you know how heavy they are. Feels like you're moving boxes of rocks.
28 months ago
whats it really matter? prelim..
It would be a big deal if they matched the prices of other bookstores on top-selling books, especially after the talk about iBooks having higher prices.
28 months ago
I'm all for lower prices, but I don't see $12-$15 for a new book release as unreasonable, it's still a substantial discount off a physical book. I suppose it depends on whether you like to keep your books around on shelves, or lend them out a lot. I used to collect books (and in fact I still have a lot of them), but in practice I rarely lend them out and if you've ever had to move an apartment or house full of books, you know how heavy they are. Feels like you're moving boxes of rocks.
I'm a Kindle owner and avid user, and there have been a number of new books sold on Kindle for $ 14.95. That's still a $10 discount over the hardcover price. The first time I saw that price for a book I wanted (a new novel), I was a bit upset, but when I saw the hardcover price, much less so.
Price will work itself out over time based on what the market will bear, I'm not worried about it.
28 months ago
lol this is almost mandatory if RH isn't joining Apple's consortium. If consumers are buying off the best seller's list, and see some for $9.99 (Random House books), and the rest for $15.99...I'd submit those $9.99 books are going to run up the charts that much faster, to the detriment to the other publishers who have been drinking Jobs' coolaid.
28 months ago
whats it really matter? prelim..
I just want to know how much Hustler, and Penthouse will be. Come on apple!
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