4 ms·

It is depressing how little Amazon cares about the Kindle, a device that would have seemed utterly magical 25 years ago as the internet matured, is just a low m

It is depressing how little Amazon cares about the Kindle, a device that would have seemed utterly magical 25 years ago as the internet matured, is just a low margin monopoly it maintains.

braunboffel 4y ago
> low margin monopoly it maintains. Please help me understand what you mean by monopoly. What is exclusive to Amazon? Aren't there competitors like Kobo, Onyx, etc?
- Kneecaps07 4y ago
  A monopoly just means you control the prices of a particular market. Amazon, in my opinion, absolutely has control of the ebook market. If they lower prices, everyone else has to lower theirs to keep up.
  - braunboffel 4y ago
    > Amazon, in my opinion, absolutely has control of the ebook market. If they lower prices, everyone else has to lower theirs to keep up. Uhm? Would you like to try explaining that again?
    - danjoredd 4y ago
      not OP but why would the average person buy a book from example.com for 15 dollars when Amazon sells it for 10? Here or there there might be a person who pays the extra 5 out of principle, but most people are going to buy from Amazon because that's what they know, and its cheaper anyway. In order to make money, other stores are going to need to match Amazon or beat it just to enter the public consciousness a little bit. Thats why Amazon kinda controls the ebook market
      - braunboffel 4y ago
        Am I correct in understanding you that you're saying companies shouldn't be able to sell at the lowest price they can sell at? How is that anti-competition, a monopoly?
        danjoredd 4y ago
        Yes, because Amazon can afford to lose money that a small business cannot. They can unfairly "squeeze" small businesses out by taking a prolonged hit until the little guy can't afford to operate anymore. That's what makes them a monopoly, because they have an unfair advantage over smaller businesses. Looking through your comment history it seems you require a source for every little thing you disagree with, so here. Its called Price Dumping. Only reason Amazon hasn't done so is because they know the US and EU will smack them with a lawsuit they would not be able to win: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-competitive_practices https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-competitive_practices If we truly care about capitalism, we need to make sure that the little businesses get just as fair of a shot as the early adopters. The market cannot balance itself out if one player dominates all others.
        braunboffel 4y ago
        > Looking through your comment history it seems you require a source for every little thing you disagree with, Interesting approach to having a fruitful discussion. I would recommend defending your claim rather than attacking my comment history. Yes, I like to ask for sources when I see something which I perceive as a extraordinary claim. It is not my intend to offend you. My intent is to acquire new data that may cause me to change my perception. Currently, I have not changed my position or perception of this discussion. I think I'll summarize the argument here and try to steelman the position opposite to mine. Your position is that a company that "dumps" or "takes a prolonged hit" is conclusively proven to be a monopoly. Therefore, I assume you also call Google a monopoly in the search space, and you also call Microsoft a monopoly in the operating system space. Is that correct?
        4y ago
ben7799 4y ago
They obviously care about the Kindle a lot with respect to reading books. They have regularly designed new hardware and the hardware has gotten very good and very affordable. The book side seems awesome. Magazines and newspapers have always just kind of sucked, and a lot of that is on the magazine and newspaper companies, not on Amazon. Why should Amazon pour money into it if sales are terrible because the Magazines and Newspapers sabotage the whole thing? The subscriptions & sales will never take off as long as it costs more than going to the website and the content is incomplete compared to visiting the website. And the navigation will always be more clumsy on the kindle. It makes for a perfect storm for content that you navigate around more than a book.
- 8ytecoder 4y ago
  Right, the formatting and reading experience has been off. I know for a fact that Amazon does the heavy lifting in converting to ebook format and delivering it.

It is depressing how little Amazon cares about the Kindle, a device that would have seemed utterly magical 25 years ago as the internet matured, is just a low margin monopoly it maintains.

braunboffel 4y ago

> low margin monopoly it maintains. Please help me understand what you mean by monopoly. What is exclusive to Amazon? Aren't there competitors like Kobo, Onyx, etc?

Kneecaps07 4y ago
A monopoly just means you control the prices of a particular market. Amazon, in my opinion, absolutely has control of the ebook market. If they lower prices, everyone else has to lower theirs to keep up.
- braunboffel 4y ago
  > Amazon, in my opinion, absolutely has control of the ebook market. If they lower prices, everyone else has to lower theirs to keep up. Uhm? Would you like to try explaining that again?
  - danjoredd 4y ago
    not OP but why would the average person buy a book from example.com for 15 dollars when Amazon sells it for 10? Here or there there might be a person who pays the extra 5 out of principle, but most people are going to buy from Amazon because that's what they know, and its cheaper anyway. In order to make money, other stores are going to need to match Amazon or beat it just to enter the public consciousness a little bit. Thats why Amazon kinda controls the ebook market
    - braunboffel 4y ago
      Am I correct in understanding you that you're saying companies shouldn't be able to sell at the lowest price they can sell at? How is that anti-competition, a monopoly?
      - danjoredd 4y ago
        Yes, because Amazon can afford to lose money that a small business cannot. They can unfairly "squeeze" small businesses out by taking a prolonged hit until the little guy can't afford to operate anymore. That's what makes them a monopoly, because they have an unfair advantage over smaller businesses. Looking through your comment history it seems you require a source for every little thing you disagree with, so here. Its called Price Dumping. Only reason Amazon hasn't done so is because they know the US and EU will smack them with a lawsuit they would not be able to win: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-competitive_practices https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-competitive_practices If we truly care about capitalism, we need to make sure that the little businesses get just as fair of a shot as the early adopters. The market cannot balance itself out if one player dominates all others.
        braunboffel 4y ago
        > Looking through your comment history it seems you require a source for every little thing you disagree with, Interesting approach to having a fruitful discussion. I would recommend defending your claim rather than attacking my comment history. Yes, I like to ask for sources when I see something which I perceive as a extraordinary claim. It is not my intend to offend you. My intent is to acquire new data that may cause me to change my perception. Currently, I have not changed my position or perception of this discussion. I think I'll summarize the argument here and try to steelman the position opposite to mine. Your position is that a company that "dumps" or "takes a prolonged hit" is conclusively proven to be a monopoly. Therefore, I assume you also call Google a monopoly in the search space, and you also call Microsoft a monopoly in the operating system space. Is that correct?
        4y ago

ben7799 4y ago

They obviously care about the Kindle a lot with respect to reading books. They have regularly designed new hardware and the hardware has gotten very good and very affordable. The book side seems awesome. Magazines and newspapers have always just kind of sucked, and a lot of that is on the magazine and newspaper companies, not on Amazon. Why should Amazon pour money into it if sales are terrible because the Magazines and Newspapers sabotage the whole thing? The subscriptions & sales will never take off as long as it costs more than going to the website and the content is incomplete compared to visiting the website. And the navigation will always be more clumsy on the kindle. It makes for a perfect storm for content that you navigate around more than a book.

8ytecoder 4y ago
Right, the formatting and reading experience has been off. I know for a fact that Amazon does the heavy lifting in converting to ebook format and delivering it.