E-Books Judge Pledges to Avoid Unnecessary Intrusion Into Apple's Business

If Apple has to allow Amazon to place a link to their store within the Kindle App, shouldn't Apple be allowed (if they wanted) to make an iBook Store application and have Amazon allow it on the Kindle so consumers have a choice between Amazon purchased books or Apple purchased books on their Amazon device?

If not, why should Apple be forced to allow Amazon to sell their books on Apple's platform?

So remember folks...you can crash the price of goods and kill off mom and pop shops and independent artists....but you can't provide a superior service where the price of those goods goes back up.

For its part, Apple has called (http://www.macrumors.com/2013/08/02/apple-files-brief-calling-department-of-justice-remedy-draconian-and-punitive/) the DOJ's proposal a "draconian and punitive intrusion into Apple's business," insisting (http://www.macrumors.com/2013/08/26/apple-accuses-doj-of-wanting-amazon-to-have-significant-competitive-advantage/) that Department of Justice is attempting to set up an unfair competitive advantage for Amazon and is

... and is what?

I am a rabid Apple fan, but I am at a loss for how they can still not see that they really did break the law here.

Yes, Amazon was exploiting their virtual monopoly in ebooks, but Apple and the publishers should have convinced the DOJ to investigate Amazon, not colluded to fix prices.

I know many of you will never be able to accept that Apple violated the law here, but they did. And since they do not appear able to accept that fact, the courts will have to have some oversight to make sure that they don't continue on in that behavior or do it again.

That would make no sense. Would you also force Apple to sell samsung and Microsoft products in their physical stores?

And here comes the analogies!

It would make lot more sense if judges would start ruling in favor of restricting any device maker to control content and other aspects of post sale commerce between consumer and retailers. Allowing device makers App oversight only. It seems that Apple execs believe that they entitled to control sale of media content on devices they sold to consumers. I think this one is coming soon, and ebooks case will look like little blip on the radar.

If any of the Apple Execs had a little bit of conscience, they would make this ebook case to go away as soon as possible with the least amount of noise. If any Apple Exec would be really a bright one - they would quietly settle and move on. It is too much to ask from these folks? Now, Apple may get even into bigger problems when DOJ may start asking questions about other questionable arrangements Apple forces on content retailers. So Apple Execs, keep on pissing on DOJ, it is sure great strategy. Money!=Power. You will lose. The one in power will show you your place.

Please, notice I am making emphasis on Apple Execs, not on Apple as a company. They are the ones, who are dragging Apple into the troubles.

Now look at it from Apple's point of view.

There is the 800lb gorilla in the eBook market - Amazon. They have been forcing publishers into contracts they didn't want by using their monopoly market power. Apple offered different contracts to these publishers, and a chance for these publishers to give their business a future, which Amazon was in the process of destroying.

Amazon complained. The DOJ jumped on the bandwagon. The publishers were blackmailed into accepting settlements even though they were not guilty of anything, but they were threatened with lawsuits that would destroy them. And Apple was declared guilty by the judge in this case before the lawsuit ever started.

The effect on businesses is chilling. Compete with Amazon, and the courts will come after you. Fortunately, Apple is not going to give in, and we can only hope that there will be an unbiased judge and a fair trial in the second round.

And do you realise by any chance that Amazon is by far the dominating device maker in the eBook market, building its monopoly by distributing books in the proprietary Kindle format?

If I am in a Kindle app, it is because I want to read a Kindle book.

If Kindle books were in app purchases, then those purchases would only be available within the app. But no, the digital content stays on Amazon's servers and I can download it to any of my Kindle devices. Amazon needs to hold the transaction and the order for it to make sense. It isn't any more of an in app purchase than the shoes I ordered through my Zappo's app.

It isn't like they are even saying they have to let Amazon sell Kindle books through their Kindle app and host the transaction like they do with the regular Amazon store app. Just a link that a 2 second Google search will give you if you don't already have it. If Apple feels threatened that removing that extra step will give Amazon a competitive advantage, they should market their iBooks product better rather than make it more difficult for the consumer who is already in the app they want to use.

Also if Apple were to remove the Kindle app, I guarantee a lot of people would be pissed off. I would have never bought an iPad without the Kindle app. Why Kindle appeals to me is because it is supported on multiple platforms. If Apple wants Amazon to lose their competitive advantage, they should make it so people can move between different platforms easily. But they don't because they want you to feel locked in and trapped so you keep buying their products since you are so tied to them. If they continue offering superior products though, people won't switch or if they do, they will come back. Do you really want your customers to be of the type that is only with you because they feel like they have invested so much already and it will be wasted if they switch? I mean I guess money is money to them but I think it would be better to keep releasing products that get people excited and wanting to stick with Apple.

It's kind of obnoxious that Apple doesn't allow Amazon to include a link to their store in their app, but in general it does seem like the courts are going overboard on this.

It is because if they did, it would allow customers to buy e-books from Amazon directly and bypass the 30% cut that Apple gets from the current process.

Now, I expect Apple is not so much worried about the 30% cut on Amazon e-book sales as you can load Amazon's e-book page in Mobile Safari and buy e-books directly from Amazon and Apple gets no cut of those sales so this process would be effectively the same. More likely, IMO, is that Apple is worried about precedent. To my knowledge, Apple does not allow any app to bypass the 30% cut process and if they do it for Amazon, they likely would open themselves up to lawsuits from other app makers citing unfair competition. And having already done so for Amazon, that would weaken Apple's defense in said cases.

So is it possible to drop the Amazon App all together?

I expect there is no legal reason why Apple could not do so, but it is likely a selling point for portable iOS devices so doing so would probably bring more harm than good to sales of portable iOS devices.

It's kind of obnoxious that Apple doesn't allow Amazon to include a link to their store in their app, but in general it does seem like the courts are going overboard on this.

That would make no sense. Would you also force Apple to sell samsung and Microsoft products in their physical stores?

The irony is it's Apple that has enabled that cross-platform support by allowing a kindle app on iOS. How come no iBooks app on a Kindle?

Because Apple has not WRITTEN an iBooks app that runs on Android. Nor will they ever. :rolleyes: