Apple says it has 20% of the e-book market
With Apple's legal battle with the DOJ now in its second week, more details surrounding Apple's success in the e-book market have emerged.
While the e-book market still, by and large, belongs to Amazon, it appears that Apple has been doing much better than most would have initially imagined. Though most estimates pegged Apple's share of the e-book market in the 10 percent range, Apple executive Keith Moerer testified in court on Wednesday that Apple's share of the e-book market is around 20 percent these days.
paidContent on Wednesday relayed some of Moerer's testimony:
"The government called the iBookstore 'a failure,' and charged that 'Apple pricing was unfair to consumers,' and that 'Apple sold fewer books because of the higher price caps.' Moerer challenged that characterization, 'I disagree. E-book sales grew 100 percent last year at the iBookstore and it had over 100 million customers.' The government countered that 'when you drop prices you sell more books,' and Moerer said, 'sometimes, yes.'"
Moerer added that Apple's share of the e-book market now stands at about 20 percent.
Apple, if you recall, is being taken to task by the government for allegedly colluding with publishers to artificially increase the price of e-books across the board by reverting to the agency model of e-book pricing wherein publishers, and not retailers, determine the pricepoint of books.
While on the stand, Moerer echoed what Apple and publishers have been arguing all along -- that there was no grand plan of collusion to raise prices, noting that Apple even fought against some publisher efforts to raise the price of e-books beyond US$14.99.
Publishers Weekly has an in-depth look at today's legal proceedings that's worth reading if you wanna stay abreast of the latest happenings in the case.
