Competition in the Digital Age
One of the arguments made in the proposed Comcast-Time Warner merger is that these two, very large cable companies do not actually compete. They are in different markets. This is something Tyler Cowen, for example, has pushed as a reason the merger should go ahead. Now this might be a good argument as to why, …
Continue reading "How is it exactly that cable companies in the US don't compete?"
Amazon.com, in its zeal to keep book prices low, is in a large fight with Hachette -- the smallest of New York's big 5 publishers. According to the NYT, it started with tactics to crimp Hachette's sales and has now apparently led to the removal of many Hachette books including, ironically, the paperback version of Brad …
Continue reading "How Hachette could fight back against Amazon"
In a New York Times piece entitled "Slaves of the Internet, Unite!" writer, Tim Kreider, revisits a theme common amongst writers -- particular writers now of my age-vintage -- that they do not like being asked to contribute pieces for free. His argument is two-fold. First, why isn't it a breach of appropriate social norms to …
Continue reading "Free content supply and the slavery charge"
That's Paul Krugman's claim today in the NYT. He argues that when Steve Ballmer took over, Microsoft was secure in its core business on the basis of operating system -- applications network externalities that raised switching costs for consumers. That led to Microsoft being blind to new developments, such as the smart phone, and hence …
Continue reading "Is Microsoft of the 1990s similar to Apple of today?"
That appears to be a key part of the DOJ's proposed remedy for Apple in the eBook pricing case. To reset competition to the conditions that existed before the conspiracy, Apple must also for two years allow other e-book retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble to provide links from their e-book apps to their …
Continue reading "Should Apple be forced to host rival book retailers for free?"
In a very interesting post, Geoffrey Manne makes the case that the Judge in the Apple eBooks trial got it wrong and that a successful appeal is possible. His analysis in lengthy but this hits at the central premise of his argument: While the opinion asserts that each publisher "could also expect to lose substantial …
Apple have been found guilty of price fixing in the US. Judge Cote found that Apple and five publishers had conspired to raise the price of eBooks. Basically, Apple used the iPad launch to "solve" the publisher's problem with Amazon's $9.99 retail pricing by assisting and, perhaps, insisting, that they engage in a coordinated move …
Continue reading "Apple found guilty of price fixing: Initial thoughts"
From a preliminary paper by Michael Baye, Babur De los Santo and Matthijs Wildenbeest: What it shows is average book prices over time for paperbacks and then eBooks sold under the agency model and the wholesale model. Now I should stress it is average book prices and it is not weighted by quantity sold. …
Continue reading "A Puzzling Graph on eBook Prices and the DOJ Case"
The US DOJ's pursuit of Apple as a "ringleader" in eBook price fixing continues to fascinate me. This week the DOJ released an email exchange between Steve Jobs and James Murdoch (of News Corp) that took place a few days before the launch of the iPad in 2010. Now Apple (and I should add Google) …
Continue reading "The Anatomy of a Digital Business Negotiation"
Today, this popped up on my Twitter feed. Bill Amend, the author of Foxtrot, was trying to use the Kindle Comic Creator tool to publish his successful collections on the Kindle. He took a close look at the terms and conditions and found that (a) because his collection was over 10MB the minimum price permitted …
Digitopoly 