4 ms·

I don't think they "shot themselves in the foot" in terms of profit. If they actually have a dominant position in the market (kinda true for ipads), then Amazon

I don't think they "shot themselves in the foot" in terms of profit. If they actually have a dominant position in the market (kinda true for ipads), then Amazon and the others will accept Apple's terms. That means that EVERYONE ELSE will subsidize Apple prizes (since they have to sell their products at the same prize as in the ipad). With that subsidy, Apple can choose to lower the prices of ipads, thus cementing it's incumbent advantage. Let's put it in another way: If MSFT circa 1999 forced every shop selling Windows programs for a 30% share (and lower or equal prices than everywhere else), and with that share they gave away Windows at a low price (or for free), then it would have been VERY HARD for Apple or any other competitor to disrupt Windows.

ghshephard 16y ago
Netflix, Kindle, and other resellers will not be able to operate on the iPad. The 30% number eliminates their entire margin. Therefore they will abandon the platform - rocketing up Android in popularity. I think this is Apple's Plan (To have those resellers abandon their platform) - because they want to have a "Walled Garden" in which they are the only content sellers. The only problem is that there are a _lot_ of us who like our Kindles, and have no desire to use "iBooks" - the lack of an eInk reader that lets us read in the sun is only one reason. Our large library of Kindle books is another. Ergo - we'll go to the next platform, and abandon the iPad - reducing it to a niche player in the Tablet world. This isn't like the iPod where Apple was the major distributor of Music. Apple is _not_ the major distributor of Books, Newspapers, and Magazine and there is _lots_ of competition in those markets. Apple actually only has about or so magazines and newspapers compared to the close to 1000 that PressReader and Zinio have. Apple has NO streaming Audio or Movie presence that I know of. I think they learned the wrong lesson from the iPod - and now they are going to screw their Tablet market dominance - much to their loss.
- zzleeper 16y ago
  So in that sense, this is a smart way to prevent their competition from using the platform, without ringing so many antitrust alarms. (If Apple just said "we banish Netflix and Kindle because we say so", it would probably lead to a few antitrust investigations)

ghshephard 16y ago

Netflix, Kindle, and other resellers will not be able to operate on the iPad. The 30% number eliminates their entire margin. Therefore they will abandon the platform - rocketing up Android in popularity. I think this is Apple's Plan (To have those resellers abandon their platform) - because they want to have a "Walled Garden" in which they are the only content sellers. The only problem is that there are a _lot_ of us who like our Kindles, and have no desire to use "iBooks" - the lack of an eInk reader that lets us read in the sun is only one reason. Our large library of Kindle books is another. Ergo - we'll go to the next platform, and abandon the iPad - reducing it to a niche player in the Tablet world. This isn't like the iPod where Apple was the major distributor of Music. Apple is _not_ the major distributor of Books, Newspapers, and Magazine and there is _lots_ of competition in those markets. Apple actually only has about or so magazines and newspapers compared to the close to 1000 that PressReader and Zinio have. Apple has NO streaming Audio or Movie presence that I know of. I think they learned the wrong lesson from the iPod - and now they are going to screw their Tablet market dominance - much to their loss.

zzleeper 16y ago
So in that sense, this is a smart way to prevent their competition from using the platform, without ringing so many antitrust alarms. (If Apple just said "we banish Netflix and Kindle because we say so", it would probably lead to a few antitrust investigations)