Sticker Shock For E-Book Readers
According to a recent Wall St Journal and Chicago Tribune article, one of the hottest gifts under the Christmas tree this year will be some type of e-reader. This is no surprise, but what might surprise these new e-reader owners is that the price gap between the print and e versions of some of the best sellers have narrowed to within a few dollars. In some cases, the e version may even cost more. In November, 2007, Amazon introduced its first Kindle e-reader (remember that price tag of $399.00??)and a key selling point was the $9.99 digital best seller. Today, you can buy a Kindle for less than $100 - but e book prices for some popular titles have soared. Industry executives predict this new development may already be hurting e book sales (which currently amount to 15- 20 percent of major publishers' revenues). Some customers who were recently interviewed commented that they are purchasing fewer e-books due to the rising prices. They stated it's hard to justify purchasing an e-book for $10 - $15 when the real print book can be purchased on Amazon used for $2 or $3.
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This opens an excellent opportunity to promoto the ebooks available at libraries for checkout.
ReplyDeleteWith the Kindle selling for $79 and the price will be coming down more and more in the future, one can see that publishers are grabbing the funds where they can.