Which model ended up benefiting the consumer the most, though? I thought that's what antitrust is all about.
Sure, we could make theories all day long about how 10 years from now Amazon will increase their prices, but that's highly improbable, as I think Amazon would like to make book prices even lower if they could. That's why they are allowing self-published authors to sell books even for $2.99, and singles for $0.99. They are working in the same time to disrupt the traditional publishing model. And that's a good thing.
I was hoping Google would be the more innovative company with Google Books, and try to disrupt Amazon with new models of selling books (or free/ad-based, promote self-publishing more, etc), but they've disappointed me in doing that, and honestly I have no idea why they even bothered entering the book market, if they weren't going to be serious and do something radical and disruptive to gain market share from Amazon.
I'm not even a fan of Amazon, and I'll never forgive them for what they voluntarily did to Wikileaks, but so far Amazon has proven time and time again to be the most innovative company in the book industry.
It is of course very difficult to forecast into the future and that is the problem with intervention into free market matters.
I do think it is interesting to note the German approach in terms of protecting publishers, and how there appear to be many more book stores in Germany catering for niche areas of publishing owing to the fixed pricing arrangement for the sale of books.
Sure, we could make theories all day long about how 10 years from now Amazon will increase their prices, but that's highly improbable, as I think Amazon would like to make book prices even lower if they could. That's why they are allowing self-published authors to sell books even for $2.99, and singles for $0.99. They are working in the same time to disrupt the traditional publishing model. And that's a good thing.
I was hoping Google would be the more innovative company with Google Books, and try to disrupt Amazon with new models of selling books (or free/ad-based, promote self-publishing more, etc), but they've disappointed me in doing that, and honestly I have no idea why they even bothered entering the book market, if they weren't going to be serious and do something radical and disruptive to gain market share from Amazon.
I'm not even a fan of Amazon, and I'll never forgive them for what they voluntarily did to Wikileaks, but so far Amazon has proven time and time again to be the most innovative company in the book industry.