WSJ: Apple wants e-books to be $12.99 or $14.99 for hardcover best sellers
By Ross Miller 
posted January 26th 2010 8:47PM
posted January 26th 2010 8:47PM
Here's a little price snippet on Apple's e-book plans, care of an eleventh hour Wall Street Journal piece. According to the article, the gang in Cupertino is asking book publishers (HarperCollins was specifically cited) to set the price point for digital versions of hardcover bestsellers at either $12.99 or $14.00, "with fewer titles offered at $9.99." The publisher apparently has the option to set its own price, but at any rate, Apple's taking the usual 30% cut from each sale -- a $14.99 novel would thus leave about $10.49 for the publisher. Nothing else to glean from this other than a rather strongly-phrased assertion that tomorrow's tablet has a 10-inch touchscreen, but no indication on where that's coming from. These prices would put Apple's selection at a premium compared with Amazon and its Kindle store, but perhaps it'll also be bypassing any rumored digital delay on new works -- question is, if Apple really is entering the e-book business and bringing with it higher prices, will it let us import our digital books purchased from other stores? What say you, Mr. McGraw?
@jimlivingston No, they cannot support Amazon's, Sony's or Adobe's DRM unless they signed some agreement together. They won't though, all of them are vying for control of the world.
Again, who really wants to read books and textbooks on a backlit LCD screen? Eye strain sucks.
I am a physician and would love to have all my refrence texts on something that was semi-portable, turns on very quickly and pricing would be way better that my books I keep on my shelf and can't carry around with me.
While he did say that, he tends to say things, then go back on them.
It's just bussinesss
(also if Apple's goal is to reinvent the printed word, that stat would likely change...as least that would be the goal)
If they do make an eBook market I hope they actually use the industry standard Pub instead of making up some other useless format to render everything else useless...but that's probably asking too much.
There needs to be an open source e book for authors so they can develop and distribute the book they wrote on thier own website, thus bypassing the distributor and apple ect completely. If Stephen King wrote a new book and sold it on his own website via paypal or something i would gladly spend money that way as 100% of the funds go to the deserving author. This crap of apple trying to dictate a price to view an e-book on its tablet is all around shit. It sounds like they are coming out with a unique file format just like mp4 so distirutors that want to have thier books available for the tablet must use that and pay a licensing fee.
Drm encrusted turd probably.
Why are all these apple stories coming from the WSJ and only WSJ? Are they the only news outlet on the planet with a secure line to Apple's PR people? How much did they pay for the privilege?
The Tablet device will be named one of the following:
1. iTab (short, simple, and to the point).
2. Mac Applet (think apple + tablet)
You heard it hear first people.
30% more expensive than everyone else. what do you expect rom a company that sells overpriced items
The price is such a rip off!! Down with Apple!! Hope they get their asses kicked by the patents lawsuits!
Well that's a big old fail. A paperback novel is only around $8-9; you don't need any batteries and you can lend it out to friends or donate it to your library when you're finished reading it.
Digital books priced over say, $5, are too pricey.
Oh, there's an Apple tablet coming out?
Funny, it's the first time I've heard of it. Why didn't you say something Engadget?
Somehow this article didn't stated that Apple wants to take over the world. Wonder if they had any college text book for cheap.
I don't see ebook, etextbook and newspaper are great selling points in the coming apple tablet. Yes, eyes gets tired or even hurt in long run for just an enlarge iPhone display.
Actually, you can read books or any news on the smaller iPhone screen now via its App or Safari.
Apple is just going to provide a closed system(preventing privacy) for the publishers to participate. I don't know why the publishers are so exciting or enthusiastic. I don't see that will increase their revenues or profits (if any) if it is just a buy-and-sell model. In fact, before today, they can package a book as an App in the App store with added features such as sounds, media or hyperlinks. They can also has Apps in Windows Mobile version or Android version too. Memory and processing power are not the constraints in the current phones or the upcoming tablet(an enlarged iphone). Battery life is also improving.
Alternatively, if the tablet has the processing power and good battery life, the customer can read the book in web browser under a subscription. Nowadays, we are reading newspaper in our laptops/netbooks! Take this as an example, I cannot access full contents of WSJ in iPhone App(it is not free now even you subscribe to WSJ.COM) but I can do it in WSJ.COM via a browser. Strange?
I don't see the advantage of reading news in a tailor-made mobile application once the tablet can have a full-function web-browser.
However, I will be more appreciated if Apple can introduced a subscription-based e-library for us or the students. It is more meaningful and useful as we can search the library for some useful knowledge and information. I will buy this idea and I am willing to pay monthly or yearly for it!
I hope Apple can have something revolutionary other than only another beautiful hardware or another X-store. Moreover, it has to revamp its iTunes program. Apple cannot just build everything on top of iTunes which is not supposed to handle so much tasks in the beginning. Prehaps, in these fews years, Apple is working hard to putting more and more features in its programs and OS. Nowadays, I have the feelings that I am using Windows when I am using OSX. To be honest, both OSes are becoming better in these years but OSX is becoming more complicated, less intuitive and less stable! Apple needs to refine its softwares esp. its online service MobileMe. It is well below Apple's standard!
Personally, I will not carry a tablet which cannot replace my laptops.
Apple makes profits - huge profits - from its hardwares. Maybe ditto this time but please brings us more new ideas and simplicity.
I saw a guy reading a book on his iPhone the other day. Right next to him was a lady reading an actual book that she had got from the library. Here's a quiz for you: which one is smarter?
@InlawBiker the one with the iPod... he doesn't have to lug the extra weight around or get the last person's cookie crumbs dropping in his lunch.
@LeeMo68
ERRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!! Try again.
$15 for a book is still about 50% off of the cover price of many hardcover books and well within the justifiable realm for those of us whose starving college student days are in the way distant past. Everyone in the chain of service - authors, editors, distributors - deserves to get paid. (And, please no "it's all going to the CEO" cop-outs... that's too 70's "establishment man" retro.)
I am looking forward to the launch because I bought an iPod touch last fall and it has quickly become essential to me - I use if for everything from a power point remote at work to a rss feeder I read over lunch.
Plus, while I do have a Kindle - I find myself reading from the iPod Kindle app more frequently because I just happen to always have the iPod in my pocket - not so with my Kindle.
If a tablet has the functionality of my iPod and a larger screen, I'm in right off the bat. Price isn't my top consideration - capabilities are key.
Love Apple (the company) and have owned the stock for several years. Up big. But as we say in the finance biz, 'Buy on the rumor, sell on the fact.' We've had rumors out the rear for weeks. So my finger's on the Sell button tomorrow at noon CST.
P.S. I hope part of the news includes new iPhone carriers. PLEASE!! We AT&T-ers want our network back !!!!!
Anyway I can warch the live blog through the iphone app and not safari? I can't find the story in the timeline...
im guessing that the screen is going to be a lcd variant. i thought the whole point of ebooks/e-readers is that you can read a book without the strain lcd puts on your eyes... well then this is kind of silly get a fucking netbook then....
I see that lost-their-damned-mind-itis bug is catching.
I'll stick with my Kindle. A screen that I can sit back relax and read easily like a paperback book, and really not worry about when the last time I charged the battery up was since it lasts for so long, I only change it once every couple WEEKS!!! I don't want a ebook reader I have to plug in and charge Daily, that's annoying enough with my cell phone. I want to pick up my ebook and just start reading.
You DON'T need COLOR on a ebook for most stuff unless your under 6 or so. I'm not even so sure about this whole gaming thing coming for the Kindle. Maybe things like Crossword Puzzles has a place.
@JBDragon
Dude, some of the stuff that will really sell are probably textbooks. They will need color diagrams and such especially for the sciences. Then there will be magazines with color. If the device has a 24+ hour battery life (fingers crossed) then you can just dock it next to your bed after you finish reading. It shouldn't use too much power as long as you have wireless (and 3G if it has it) turned off.
I'll just buy the real book on eBay or something for $5 and resell it when I am done.
I believe that the future of publishing will be in the digital format and paper volumes will low production run "Collector's Editions" at a higher price point than today and meant only for the die-hard fans that just have to have it in hard-cover. Paperbacks will go away altogether as the year later markdown version. I can see this happening by the end of the decade at the very latest and the consumer will be better off for it in the end.
My reasoning for this? The trouble right now with the publishing industry is that so many people share their books among friends and/or buy and sell at used book stores that the publishers are only making revenue on a small percentage of the actual readers of any given book. Say that Steven King releases a new book and it becomes a best seller, #1 on the charts for 10 weeks and all that jazz. I'd bet you that even though he sells millions of copies of the book, the actual number of people that read those copies is at least five time the number of copies sold and probably higher. This means that the publisher has to sell the hardcover at $29.99 or whatever it goes for these days at bookstores in order to make a profit on the volume they will sell.
It is the same problem that plagues the CD music market, DVD market and console game market among other things. The reseller market is often as big or bigger than the new sales channel.
Publishers in any of these fields that can come up with a distribution system that makes every person that uses their product have buy their own copy is going to do everything to make that the only way to get the content. As they do this and the revenue increases the prices will slowly and steadily drop on the content. Cost for distribution will be down, competion from resellers will be gone and sharing will be all but eliminated except for those that are willing to share their device.
I'll take it one step further and say that the content will not only be wrapped up in DRM it will also be entirely streamed by the end of this decade. All your purchases will be stored remotely and downloaded at time of use for all these types of content as a way to combat piracy. The device will only be a viewer for the content with all the data being stored remotely right down the page you were on when you stopped reading the day before and will stream in a section of the book, say 5 pages back and 15 pages forward and any given time so that there is no xxx.pub type file to be able to move around or share.
Movies, music, books, video games, magazines, and anything else that has the same sharing and reseller market problem today. I think even satellite/cable box DVR's and the like will all go away in favor of devices similar to the Roku box and it's Amazon application. When you want to "record" a show it will just be tagged to a list and then streamed to you when you want to play it back at your leisure but no copy will actually be placed in your hands in it's complete form. No more 400 hour limit on the shows you can record because there won't be a hard-drive to fill up.
I suddenly love my 10$ a book Kindle.
Seriously guys.
Books save us so much cost on electricity if you counted it all. Books will always be there when technology fails. Books are always real and beautiful. Books are not distracting when you don't have over 9000 applications running the background tell you what Twitter updates you have.
Basically...
Books > iPad, Kindle, and all the below.
All I know is that I already feel $9.99 to be highway robbery for an e-book. Considering there is no printing cost and a computer file can be duplicated indefinitely I would like to know how they come up with these numbers. There is NO WAY I am going to pay $14.99 for an e-book. This will of course lead to a high level of e-book piracy.
Writers need to start selling e-books themselves from their fan sites!
Whos going to read a book on a 10" screen? My 3.6" PDA screen is closer to the paperback reading experience than that already. Way too expensive, no 3g here and i just wonder what the gimpage will be. On the other hand im excited to see the tablet ball get rolling officially so we can see some cheaper devices. What i want is a parger pda type device with a 7 or 8" screen i think would fit nicely and importantly a proper filing system so i can see what ive got and what im doing with it.
@Shrikey Who's going to read on a 10" screen? Gee, I don't know - let's ask the gazoodles of Kindle readers. And just how large is that paperback that you're reading? Oh, only 6"? Hmm.
It's a perfect screen size, and I suspect Apple might make a larger version to compete with the Kindle DX at a later date. But 10" is fine for me.
Maybe apple will allow "authors" to sell their own works like the app store, haha
No, asking for Acrobat Pro and Office isn't too much to ask, and I suspect you'll see the former very quickly. However, the latter is dependent on Microsoft, which pretty much intentionally cripples its version of Mac Office ... so don't expect them to spend any dev time on Office for the iPad, since this device competes with its own plans and OS.
This device actually does just about hit my sweet spot. I'm a voracious reader (and I'm not fond of my Kindle - too reminiscent of 20 year old tech), I have a lot of video, pics, I email a lot, use Facebook and spend a fair amount of time on the web. That pretty much describes the audience for the iPad. For a student, you need something to read and comment on PDFs and to take tons of notes. You might have to live with iWork and export to Word format to share with other folks.