3 ms·

Pretty poor reporting from the NYT. Amazon isn't "under pressure" from wall street to up their margins, they actually enjoy quite a premium valuation. And Amazo

by trotsky 15y ago

Pretty poor reporting from the NYT. Amazon isn't "under pressure" from wall street to up their margins, they actually enjoy quite a premium valuation. And Amazon doesn't use cheap ebooks to drive sales of their kindles, it's the exact opposite - cheap kindles to drive sales of the ebooks. With the story so oddly slanted it makes me wonder who bought this placement.

Turing_Machine 15y ago
Also: "But in what might have been a sly message from Amazon, there was a button to click to tell the publisher you would like to read the book on Kindle." That button is on every title that's not available on Kindle, for whatever reason, and has been for ages. As you say, pretty poor reporting.
nhebb 15y ago
> And Amazon doesn't use cheap ebooks to drive sales of their kindles, it's the exact opposite - cheap kindles to drive sales of the ebooks. It's a combination of the two. For tech subjects at least, the Kindle pays for itself within 3 or 4 ebook purchases, but of course the math works out that way because the Kindle itself is cheap. I finally bought a Kindle (just got it yesterday), and you know what drove me - a dead trees lover - to buy one? The publishing lead times. In the HN thread re Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Rails by Example, I asked when the print edition would be available, and Michael Hartl said it would take about six months. A six month lead time after the ebook is released! That's a long time in the evolving world of Ruby.
saucetenuto 15y ago
> With the story so oddly slanted it makes me wonder who bought this placement. I had the same thought, and guessed I.P.G (or their allies in the publishing industry). This is not a great feat of analysis, though: there are two parties in the dispute, and _Amazon_ certainly didn't buy this coverage. One hopes not, anyway, for their sake.

3 ms·

Pretty poor reporting from the NYT. Amazon isn't "under pressure" from wall street to up their margins, they actually enjoy quite a premium valuation. And Amazo

by trotsky 15y ago

Turing_Machine 15y ago
Also: "But in what might have been a sly message from Amazon, there was a button to click to tell the publisher you would like to read the book on Kindle." That button is on every title that's not available on Kindle, for whatever reason, and has been for ages. As you say, pretty poor reporting.
nhebb 15y ago
> And Amazon doesn't use cheap ebooks to drive sales of their kindles, it's the exact opposite - cheap kindles to drive sales of the ebooks. It's a combination of the two. For tech subjects at least, the Kindle pays for itself within 3 or 4 ebook purchases, but of course the math works out that way because the Kindle itself is cheap. I finally bought a Kindle (just got it yesterday), and you know what drove me - a dead trees lover - to buy one? The publishing lead times. In the HN thread re Ruby on Rails Tutorial: Learn Rails by Example, I asked when the print edition would be available, and Michael Hartl said it would take about six months. A six month lead time after the ebook is released! That's a long time in the evolving world of Ruby.
saucetenuto 15y ago
> With the story so oddly slanted it makes me wonder who bought this placement. I had the same thought, and guessed I.P.G (or their allies in the publishing industry). This is not a great feat of analysis, though: there are two parties in the dispute, and _Amazon_ certainly didn't buy this coverage. One hopes not, anyway, for their sake.