Skip to main content

Showdown Of Ebook Gunslingers (Amazon/Apple)

    Hey, everyone. Remember in the Clint Eastwood movie called The Good, The Bad And The Ugly? At the end, the three gunmen stood in a triangle to shoot it out, with no one knowing who would shoot who? It was tense and cool. Tonight we stand in the shadow of another showdown. None of these gunmen are bad guys. Most people like all the companies involved and none of them are doing anything wrong. Here's the recipe.
    For the past 15 months or so, Apple has allowed companies to have apps on the app store which had provisions inside the app for consumers to buy things at another site. In such instances Apple received no money for that. Anything sold through the app store nets Apple a 30% cut. All this time, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Sony Books and others had apps through which they sold books to I-Padsters. Apple did not profit from this. It was very nice for us, and incredibly magnanimous of Apple to allow us to use their app store to buy books from their competitors.
     When you think about it, that was incredibly decent of Apple. I think it was also good for business, as far as selling I-Pads goes. It was not a closed system. You were not locked in. What I mean is, if you have a Nook, you buy from Barnes and Noble. If you were to say, "Dang it! Those I-Pads look cool and can do so much. I'll buy one." Well, guess what? Those 78 books on your Nook? They don't transfer to your I-Pad, is my understanding. Also, you can't cruise to I-Books and buy a book with your Nook, I don't think.
    It's the same deal with Kindle, I understand. With Kindle, you buy from Amazon and only books from Amazon can you read on a Kindle.
    On my I-Pad, I have books from Kobo, Sony Books, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Stanza, Google Books and others. I like that. It feels, tastes and smells like freedom.
    Now, things are about to change. As of today, Apple demands that for any app on their store, that app cannot have listed on it a means of buying something outside the app store. That would seem to negate buying a book on Amazon or Barnes and Noble. Apple wants their 30% cut. When a vendor sells you a game, Apple gets 30% of the price.
   Will Apple truly enforce this, beginning today? Gee, I hope not. I can see where it would be beneficial in some instances where game companies have done some unsavory things once they got people to other sites. No, I'm talking about the book thing. I truly understand how Apple feels slighted. They are helping their major competitors sell books and getting no cut. But the way they have handled this up until now has been so darn big and visionary, successful and magnanimous that I feel it would be a mistake to change now.
    Many folks chose the I-Pad for the ability to get books from all over. Let's not change the status quo which has made you the dominant, almost the only, figure in the tablet market. What part of that 14 billion dollar app store pie don't you like? Isn't it enough to be one of the most admired and successful companies on earth, a true trendsetter? Don't risk all by closing your fist on something that is certainly yours by every legal and moral standard. Are you justified in doing this? Yes. Does it make good sense, business wise? Absolutely. But is it what is best for you? I think not.
    Think about Dell computers. If you had a Dell PC and Dell wanted a cut from everything you bought off it, you'd freak out, right? Well, that's not a good analogy because Dell doesn't have an app store, but you catch my drift. This tablet of mine is a computer. Give me freedom to enjoy it. People knock you, Apple, for being proprietary. Don't fall into this scenario. Don't allow this tendency in you to sour things now, when you are on top of the world. How can things get better for you? Let's have detente, free trade and all that. Let's see Kindle and Nook allow books from Apple and vice-versa. Then, when the Amazon tablet comes out, Steve Jobs can say, "Hey, Jeff Bezos, where's the I-Books app? Where's the App Store app on that thing? I want people to buy app store games on the Amazon tablet. "
    Let every e-reader work for any book from any store. If we're into this e-book thing, let's get all the way in. Let's not hinder a great new opportunity. Go in peace, my children.
   From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

It's So Easy

     Hey, everyone, out there in etherland. I've been playing some new songs this morning on my keyboard. You may remember a Buddy Holly tune called It's So Easy . I hadn't matched the title to the song before today so I was delighted when I saw that it was the one that goes like this: "It's so easy to fall in love, it's so easy to fall in love." It rocks pretty good. A later version of it, after amps and guitars had improved, really rocked. It seems like Joan Jett may have done a version. Anyway, I was playing this song and I thought about a fun thing I like to do. Sometimes I'll start to play a song and tell Carley, or the grandkids, whoever may be there, a silly story about it.      For instance, I would say that once upon a time Buddy Holly came to me and said, "CE, I need a hit, my man. The kids need shoes. I want to go on American bandstand, you know what I'm saying?"     "Yeah, Buddy, I hear you. But the thing is, I think ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Movie Review: Limitless

    Hey, everyone. I ventured off the mountain today, down into the haunts of men. I'll tell you about a movie I saw, then later I'll tell you about some other stuff. The movie is Unlimited . This is a story that you would have to call science fiction, but in the not so distant future you may call it reality.      Bradley Cooper plays Edward Morra. If you looked up loser in the dictionary you would see this guy's picture. He has freeloaded off his girlfriend for years. He claims to be a writer but can't seem to put words on paper. His woman leaves him; he is a scroungy, dirty dude with no future, no drive and no money. He is about to be evicted from his scummy apartment.     Then he bumps into an old friend. The friend wants him to try a new drug which comes in the form of a small, clear pill. What Edward doesn't know is that the pill is pretty awesome. The drug is designed to unlock the true potential of the human brain. We only use a...
4 comments
Read more

The Biscuit

    Hey, everyone. What a relief that Christmas is over, huh? I don't think it was meant to be the way it is.     I started thinking about the so-called good 'ole days today. My wife says that at her house, they would take a left-over biscuit and shine their shoes before church. I one-upped her by saying, "Oh, yeah? I ate the biscuit when everyone got finished with it. And I was grateful for it." Truly, though, you can and people did, shine their shoes with a biscuit. Hey, they were greasy little buggers.     Speaking of greasy little buggers, I remember when everyone had wells and were very conservative about water, particularly those of us who had to crank a handle up and down to get a bucket of water. There was no daily bath. (No showers in those days, mate.) About twice a week we took a bath and here's the recipe: The oldest kid took a bath first, then the next oldest etc. You can see why younger siblings hated the older. Bathing in the...
Post a Comment
Read more