Amazon has 70-80 percent of E-Book Market?
Posted by Bob Warfield on August 3, 2010
Great article by David Carnoy, and thanks to Techmeme for putting me on to it. That statistic, if true, is amazing for Amazon.
Some of the other things said really rang true. For example, that despite the publishers (with Steve Jobs help) having run roughshod over Amazon to drive up e-book prices, customers are voting with pocketbooks:
We have definitely seen a shift. We have data for the last 15 years on books. And since some of the publishers have decided to price their e-book above $9.99, we’ve definitely seen a shift of customers going to e-books that are $9.99 or less. The good news for them is that the selection of those books is very dramatic. We have about 630,000 books that are not public domain titles and of those 510,000 are sold for $9.99 or less. Of The New York Times best-sellers, 80 of them are $9.99 or less. So customers are voting with their pocketbook…
That’s so true in our family. We wait for the books to come down in price and meanwhile plenty to choose from at lesser prices. It’s something of a pity Amazon’s recommendation engine doesn’t let me just tell it to leave out anything over $9.99.
Meanwhile, there was this great article about coffee shops and restaurants banning computers and eBooks. It’s bad enough to see that happening in an enlightened city like NY, but ridiculous in the heart of Silicon Valley. Yet, the prohibition against computers at lunch was very much in effect the last time I was at University Cafe in Palo Alto. No matter, customers will vote with pocketbooks there too. Shameful to do that in the Valley, though. Just embarassing.
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