Now me personally I was never a huge reader and then things like digital books and comics came out and me being a tech person it was perfect. If I wanted to read I could get the book from my own home and not clutter my place up with books. There was a time when digital books were reasonably priced and people were happy to pay. Well rumblings are starting grow with the fact that 7 top publishing companies have agreed on the agency price model. This model will allow their books to be in the Apples iBookstore and with the iPad 2 launching most publishers would feel out in the cold if they couldn?t present their books on the Apple platform. This agency model if you are unaware gives 70% profit to the publisher while the rest goes to the retailer. This does also allow for the publisher to set the price and not the retailer and in some case in Europe there are investigations on whether or not this is actually constituted as price fixing and the work of an illegal cartel.
So there is a very big deal that goes along with what was said above. The pricing is somewhat unfair to the consumer. I have pulled some information that might be shocking to you readers. Here is a breakdown of a few books via digital purchase or from buying from your local bookstore.
Title: The Kite Runner
Digital: $12.99
Paper back: $7.81
Title: A Thousand Splendid Suns
Digital $12.99
Paperback $9.40
So no paper, no glue, shipping or bindings needed and yet the digital is more expensive? That sounds like extreme greed to me and when people see this type of greed going on other people step in and start pirating these products. We have seen it with music and movies and now books might be the next thing to be pirated. It something to keep an eye on, will this work or will it be a bigger issue coming down the pike with how the publishing companies are pricing these books. Only time will tell if greed will win out on this, I think it most likely will only due to convenience and the owners of Kindles and iPad?s will pay more for the convenience of downloading a book which doesn?t take up space and you have to typically go to a store to get.
With Apple introducing yet another device to its unbelievable line up devices, Apple is currently in talks with major record companies across multiple devices. So far Apple has been negotiating with companies including Vivendi SA Universal Music group EMI Group Ltd, Warner Music Group Corp, and Sony Music Entertainment and an agreement could be announced as early as midyear said some sources close to the negotiations.
What this arrangement would do is give users more flexibility in how they access music. Apple and the record labels are trying to find more ways to keep the demand for music downloading popular with services like Pandora who don?t sell music but yet let individual?s stream music from whatever device supports it.
This deal would give iTunes users the ability to have a permanent backup of the music you purchase if the originals are lost or damaged. This would also allow downloads to the multiple Apple devices such as the iPad, iPod and iPhone that are linked to the same accounts. This would move them a step closer to a universal access to content stored directly on the net.
Everyone is being hush on the situation, no groups have officially spoken on what this deal will actually entail, and at this point it is really based on speculation and what I have read from other sources.
It has been reported that the Apple is holdings it?s always anticipated event on March 2nd of this year. Many sources have stated that the company will be unveiling the first look at the iPad 2. The thoughts on the iPad 2 are simple, it will be thinner than the iPad 1, and it will have an improved display and will also have a front facing camera for face to face video chat. It is also said that the 2 will be running on a Qualcomm multimode chip with GSM and CDMA based network support around the entire world.
This show will be a very big deal for Apple. With competition finally hitting the tablet market we will be seeing Apple trying to show off how great the iPad can really be. Every other tablet is running the Honeycomb version of Google?s Android mobile OS. And with nearly 25 million iPads sold since its inception last spring will the iPad 2 be able to reach the same plateau with all of this new competition? As I always say, time will tell.
Some people have been awaiting the arrival of the Motorola Xoom, a possible alternative to the iPad. Well it looks like those people who wanted the Xoom so bad will have to wait for one little thing. Well maybe it?s actually a big thing. It will ship on February 24th with NO flash support. If you look above at the Verizon sheet for the Xoom in very small print you will see * Adobe Flash expected Spring 2011. So you won?t have to wait very long to get flash support but shouldn?t the Xoom had been prepared for this? This was supposed to slay the iPad and be its first real competition. Yet it won?t have flash at launch. So maybe the only positive thing to come of this is that people using the Xoom won?t have to worry about annoying flash ads popping up while surfing the web.
Apple is considering changing its 15 minute purchase windows for people to buy successive apps or purchase in-app items with only one password sign-in. They are considering this because as of right now it holds your password in place they want to change that in efforts to stop unwanted app purchases.
Multiple companies are asking that Apple make it standard that any in-app purchases requiring a password for each individual purchase. So at the moment you only have to sign in once to buy apps and if you buy another app within 15 minutes you don?t need to put a password in for it. This problem stems from a lot issues with children buying in game items that are aimed at children and with those orders have reached in the thousands of dollars purchased.
With the fact that the developers of these games are also behind the consumers on this to change the application purchasing system, well I think Apple may have to look long and hard on doing this change in there next OS update.
Apple has announced a new in-app subscription charge to the companies that have applications on the itunes market that offer subscriptions through the app via your iPad or through your iPhone and iPod touch. So for example say you have an iPad and found the Netflix app while searching on your iPad for new apps but don?t have a subscription set up for this service. Well if you sign up through the application on your iPad, apple wants to take 30% of that application subscription. It?s always been the case that no matter how a person subscribes to a service the company who created the service would keep it.
So is this a good idea? It could be to make apple richer. But what does that mean for the customer? Well hopefully the companies that have apps for the Apple brands find ways to get customers to subscribe for their service outside of the itunes store, like via the web. But if there is still a massive influx of people subscribing on the App store will it force companies to sit there and take the hit or just leave the app store all together. Now you could pose the argument to me that the companies could just charge a bit more on the app store to make up the difference in lost profit. Well I am sorry to shoot you down but Apple has asked that the subscriptions be the same deals as you could get outside of the app store. So if you paying 9.99 a month for Netflix, it won?t be a different charge if you signed up in the app store.
Now the final piece to the puzzle that makes this so grand is competition. The Android marketplace is also going to be releasing a subscription service. Allegedly it will be a 10% charge versus Apple?s 30%. This could mean companies could jump over to Android and leave Apple behind. Apple does still have a strong hold on the market share however Androids being clawing up the ranks. Android is making a smart move by undercutting Apple here. Apple is setting a precedent with these charges and Android is following just a very small rate. With this, Android could see an increase in market share if companies decide that doing subscription services through Apple just isn?t work the money they would have to pay out to them. So what do you think? Is this a good idea or bad idea? I personally am not sure yet.
