Eoin Purcell
Forbes tackled publishing and Amazon last week
And while I’m loathe to take serious a discussion that begin thusly:
Technology has disrupted every industry. Now, it’s book publishing’s turn.
Archaic beyond belief, it’s an industry that treats its most important asset–the author–badly. Can this go on?
It nevertheless has some decent points to make and is worth reading, even if many of the comments grate and overflow with bias.
Forbes are not alone
Indeed, The Bookseller ran a column by Laurence Obach this week that touched succinctly on the issue:
Returning to Amazon, it’s possible that their business model is flawed and can’t make money. I don’t believe that. Maybe taking a stand now will work wonders, but I’m a sceptic.
Amongst publishers, both Hachette and Bloomsbury clashed with Amazon over terms this year.
Amazon are beginning to unsettle me and if stories like this one are to be believed, The Kindle will be ipod like very shortly!
I don’t believe,
Eoin
Eoin Purcell's Blog 
The only way the Kindle can become successful is for amazon to realize that the device to compare it’s economics to is the video game deck, not the ipod. By that I mean, if amazon were to drop the price of the device to around $100 and LOSE MONEY SHORT TERM, they could then recoup with much higher book sales even if they drop the price of books below the $9 range. This is what worked for the video game makers. Lose money on the device, make money selling what the device “reads”.
The other thing that can be used to sell Kindle is the “GO GREEN” paperless issue.
The scientifically impossible I do right away
The spiritually miraculous takes a bit longer