UK iBookstore surprise: premium content appears
By Tim Stevens 
posted May 28th 2010 7:03AM
posted May 28th 2010 7:03AM
posted May 28th 2010 7:03AM
Apple iPad 3rd-gen
A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
Crazy prices. It's cheaper to buy a physical copy!
@futurerheza
You can't blame Apple here...I was just interested in a Sony reader and started to research ebook prices in various stores. Not only could I not find various titles I wanted, they all mostly cost more than a paperback of the same book. This is across the board and I'm sure iTunes prices are in line with the market.
@Tes And you sir are correct.
@Tes You're sadly absolutely correct. I thought Apple had done some deals to change the pricing of eBook distribution - or had I just imagined that?
@futurerheza
As an example, Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett:
Amazon Hardcover = £9.81
Amazon Paperback = £3.79
Amazon Audio book = £10.25
Amazon Kindle version from US = £8.91 appx
WH Smiths ePub = £15.52
The cheapest ebook version is the Kindle version but I then have to buy a Kindle (or indeed an iPd with Kindle app) and can't use it on a Sony or Acer or any other e-reader. the portable version open to any reader I have is prohibitively expensive.
@xbit
No kidding,
Even at Waterstones The burning Land is only £5.19 less than half that price! Men from the boys is £2 cheaper for the hardback and the Thousand Autumns of Jacob De Zoet is £2.50 cheaper for hardback.
Only I could only be bothered to check those 3!
@RincewindWiz
I think Apple did some deals to make it possible for the publishers to be more autonomous with their own pricing as Amazon was dictating pricing to them. I believe people naturally assumed this meant cheaper prices, but I read it as publishers would be able to charge more if they wanted too...and as you see above, they chose the latter.
@RincewindWiz yes they did. but unfortunately it was not necessarily in our favor.
By tradition ebooks have followed the same deals as physical ones. the store buys the copies at a wholesale price and then (within contract guidelines) sells them for whatever price they want. For example, Amazon was apparently paying $10 for each ebook and selling them at cost, using the books as a lure to get people on the site to buy other stuff.
Apple wanted to go for a percentage deal like they do with music etc. In other words, instead of a flat fee for each copy that might or might not sell they would basically get the copies for free and then split the money 70/30 in favor of the publisher. But to get folks to say yes to this deal, they had to agree to different pricing rules. The publishers wanted the right to set prices as high as $15. Not unlike the Labels saying they wanted to be able to have $1.29 music tracks in exchange for noDRM.
Some publishers are using that new pricing and yes, charging as much as they do for a trade size paperback. Which sucks but what can we do.
@xbit
You can blame apple, a bit. Amazon had for a long time set the max price at 9.99$. In comes apple and starts wooing publishers with higher price, so amazon and rest of the world have to follow the suit.
"find a comfy chair, pour a nice cuppa, and enjoy your weekend with your new toy."
yes sadly thats all the iPad will ever be, just a toy...
@BubblegumBalloon Yep, just like that iPhone. I Remember all those crazy people who said it would be used for real work and business.
@BubblegumBalloon Yes, a toy, just like those graphical user interfaces! (Real men use command lines.)
@BubblegumBalloon zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...
@BubblegumBalloon
Sorry man, the ipad wasn't the failure that you wanted it to be. All the vaporware competition couldn't make it out of the gate. Pour a nice cuppa and cry yourself to sleep.
@BubblegumBalloon best damn toy I ever bought, not that you asked.
now if you will excuse me, it's my turn on words with friends.
blood gadget News update - engadget left this out of the story.
Chinese media reported another employee survived a suicide bid on Thursday at the vast plant, where 10 have died recently in apparent suicides. An 11th worker died at a Foxconn factory in northern China.
I hope to start seeing physical books with a code to get a digital copy like some DVDs and LPs. 4th edition D&D books were originally supposed to include a access to a digital copy, but this never happened. I just can't see paying the same price or more for digital copies. Even if you add $5 to the cost of the physical book to include a digital copy to me it would be worth it, but $12.99 or up for most popular books just seems to hight to me. I would like an iPad for a book reader, but the current pricing scheme is keeping me from jumping at it.
Lacking serious content. Just a quick search I did saw it has no Harry Potter or no Steven King. God knows what else it's missing.
@kutt Blame the publishers. Particularly about the Harry Potters. I suspect some of it is due to a dual publishing set up, but those have yet to go digital anywhere from what I can tell
The german store now is "filled" as well...
You only get one chance to make a first impression. And the UK iBook store makes an impression of being incredibly expensive with a terribly small collection of books.
Had Apple create an app called iBooks - which flashed up a screen that said: GO TO THE KINDLE STORE! - it would perhaps have made the same impression.
C.
@Carniphage
one chance to make a first impression? LOL It's pretty laughable you used that in a serious context.
It's like you just learned that from your mom this morning and had to show it in to a comment somehow
I don't know who is setting these prices but making 200kb more expensive than a printed book is a mental case.
@benedictm
The only price you wouldn't complain about is free.
Yeah whats with the prices ?? Expensive for a virtual book ehshhhh