Publishing giant Macmillan said late Saturday that Amazon.com has pulled its e-book titles from being sold for the Kindle in a price war apparently sparked by Apple Inc.’s new iPad.
Macmillan, a unit of Germany’s Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH, made the announcement in an advertisement on publishing industry Web site PublishersMarketplace.com.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced Wednesday that Macmillan was among a group of publishers that would sell their titles on the iBook site set up for the iPad.
Apple is allowing publishers to charge more than the $9.99 that Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has set for titles sold for the Kindle, long a point of dispute with publishers.
Under the Apple arrangement, publishers set their own e-book prices, with Apple taking 30 percent of the revenue. This is expected to raise many e-book titles to $12.99 and $14.99. Instead of black and white, the iPad allows publishers to add multimedia and color to the offerings, as well.
Macmillan said Amazon pulled its titles for sale through all but third parties after CEO John Sargent visited Seattle on Thursday to discuss “new terms of sales for e-books.”
Amazon has given in to Macmillan, and will switch to a pricing model that sees bestseller and new hardcover releases offered to customers at $12.99 to $14.99. The official statement is as follows:
Dear Customers:
Macmillan, one of the “big six” publishers, has clearly communicated to us that, regardless of our viewpoint, they are committed to switching to an agency model and charging $12.99 to $14.99 for e-book versions of bestsellers and most hardcover releases.
We have expressed our strong disagreement and the seriousness of our disagreement by temporarily ceasing the sale of all Macmillan titles. We want you to know that ultimately, however, we will have to capitulate and accept Macmillan’s terms because Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles, and we will want to offer them to you even at prices we believe are needlessly high for e-books. Amazon customers will at that point decide for themselves whether they believe it’s reasonable to pay $14.99 for a bestselling e-book. We don’t believe that all of the major publishers will take the same route as Macmillan. And we know for sure that many independent presses and self-published authors will see this as an opportunity to provide attractively priced e-books as an alternative.
Kindle is a business for Amazon, and it is also a mission. We never expected it to be easy!
Thank you for being a customer.
We need to rethink what a newspaper and magazine is. This ipad will try to reproduce the paper format. I own a Kindle, and it’s not good a periodicals because of layout problems. Both the KIndle and the ipad are closed ecosystems. You have to use itunes or amazon. The technology needs to mature a few more years to color eink, OLED, or something new.
I’m glad most of you guys are Apple haters. That means I will get my iPad even sooner than if you were taking up a space in line. I like my Kindle but it’s a one trick pony. And I read on LCD screens all day at work and my eyes are fine. The iPad is a device of convenience…and I live for convenience.
And every knock against the iPad is the same knocks that were hurled at the iPod…which now owns 80% of the portable music market. The same knocks at the iPhone…which has sold 50 million units and is redefining the smart phone market.
And as of this post….Amazon has relented on Macmillan pushing for new pricing.
Mute point since Amazon has caved. Another giant leap forward for piracy!
http://tiny.cc/o4CuF
#2
But then we wont have anything to argue about will we? Enjoy the “good” news reporting like the rest of us. At least there’s no one name beck around here. You might be thinking Cherman, but he’s still working up the latter of failed.
“iPAD” – Isn’t that a feminine hygiene product?
It’s weird cause Apple almost always ends up acting like a bunch of male sex-organs.
I can just see the future law suits claiming that printed books will be infringing on Apple’s rights somehow. I’m also sure the revisionist’s history (you Apple fan boys in particular) will eventually start claiming that Steve Jobbs was the true inventor of “movable type” too.
Awake #17
Actually I have been blaming Apple as starting it with a “you and him fight” sort of deal.
I was not aware of Jobs’ ultimatium, but sort of suspected it. I just thought it was weird that Amazon pulled ALL Macmillan books in print. Buying from 3rd parties screws the publisher,which doesn’t bother me, and the author, which does.
Believe me, I am not now or ever have been an Apple fan.
#23,
Incorrect, iTunes owns 80% of the paid music market. It is still dwarfed by piracy.
And Im watching the Grammys right now, and Apple has won exactly nothing…
As pointed out elsewhere, Amazon capitulates to Macmillan. Saying that “Macmillan has a monopoly over their own titles” may be the whiniest thing I’ve read this year.
I do like my iPod Touch, but I hate iTunes because it is some of the buggiest software I have ever encountered. At least for the PC….and that is a huge customer base they are pissing off.
Caption this photo:
“Imagine the size of the vagina…”
#30,
I was gonna switch after I got my iPhone, but I found out that it runs just like that on Macs as well.
This story is not true. The CRUTAPE Letters sells for $11.99 on Kindle.
# 27 dodgema said, “Buying from 3rd parties screws the publisher,which doesn’t bother me, and the author, which does.”
I would not have agreed with you until today. MacMillan was selling ebooks thru Amazon at $10 a shot. At this price point they were, apparently, making a slim profit. Now they will sell the same books at $15 – a sudden 50% price rise in the middle of a recession. An interesting business model. I’m willing to bet the authors will not get a corresponding 50% increase in royalties. Interestingly, I suspect Amazon will also get an increased profit at no effort or damage to their reputation. Especially when the other publishers follow suit.
The only piece of Apple gear I own is the Airport and still they find a way to cost me money!
If the book publishers were smart. Which they aren’t. They would all get together and have one central database of ebooks and set the prices there. Whoever wants access to their e-books can pay them a chunk of change and then perform a resale operation.
There would have to be some over-site or transparency to ensure there was no price fixing, but overall this would allow a more true and open market to persist; prices would be decided by market demand. Not amazon or the almighty Steve Jobs. Whats wrong with the invisible hand ?
So! What is the difference between an emitted photon and a reflected photon?
#23 You’re a poor human, mindless drone. Hope mac squeezes every penny out of your pocket.
#31 It can hold a year’s worth of periods.
I have an idea. Those that want a Kindle, buy one, those that want an iPad, buy one of them, those that do not, don’t.
So how are people getting this story on the Amazon Kindle price point being under $10?
If you have a Kindle, open it right now, and search for “CRUtape”, you will find a book about the ClimateGate e-mails selling for $11.99.
I’d like to be positive about this new Apple product, but….
It looks like it’s just another pay-for-content appliance. And is moving us toward a version of Cloud computing, that’s content based, rather than application based. And we’ll be subject to the pricing of huge media monopolies, who control the content price, use, and access. The iPad will only be a ticket to ride on this train. That charges you again and again, at every stop it makes. I’d be surprised if much “free” content is ever allowed on the thing. That would be like expecting to make free calls on the iPhone.
All these tablet readers are for, is a means to kill the public libraries. Who charge little or nothing, for you to borrow their books and music (even some DVDs are free). When these “more convenient” readers manage to close down your libraries (someday). Then you’ll see just how cheap their fees are.
I agree with Improbus (#5). Why should an ebook cost as much as a printed one? It’s not a permanent copy. Soon as you run out of storage space, you’ll probably discard it. You can’t sell the volume to someone else, or past on a copy of it, outside of your reader device. It’s like when CDs replaced LPs. They ended up costing just as much, if not more. But the material costs (album cover and disc) were maybe less than half of the LPs’.
Eventual flash ram will replace all optical discs. And you’ll need a “reader” just to see the jacket cover art and content list. Because something the size of a stick of gum, won’t have the room for it to be printed on. If the iPad could one day play these, then it will be something useful. But if it’s stuck being tied to the print media distribution monopolies. Then no, it won’t.