For all the legal back and forth in Apple’s eBook price fixing trial, Apple ultimately only needs to point to one fact in its defense: the Amazon Kindle eBook format is Visibly inferior to Apple’s own. The federal government claims That When Apple met with book publishers to agree on standardized pricing for iPad books, Their decision to choose a higher price point than what was being charged by Amazon at the time represents a conspiracy to fix pricing. But Apple’s best defense is its own iBookstore format, Which even the judge in the case who’s already made biased statements against Apple willhave to admit isn’ta Comparable to the watered-down Kindle format.
Amazon makes its Kindle eBooks Broadly compatible with hardware devices ranging from its own Kindle to Apple’s iPad to various PC computers. In offering Such wide compatibility, Kindle eBooks are stripped down to the lowest common denominator, looking vaguely pixelated, lacking colors, and feeling generic. As is typically the case, “compatibility” Translates to “only as good as the weakest hardware it’s Capable of running on.” To compensate for for its lack of sophistication, Amazon priced Kindle eBooks at gene rally ten dollars or less.
Apple’s decision to work with book publishers to price iBookstore titles at a higher $ 12.99 price might Qualify as price fixing if Apple’s offerings were worth no more than Amazon’s. But while both companies offering the same books comprised of the same words, Apple’s Visibly better looking ebook format Demonstrates That it’s selling a higher quality product and there fore has a legal right to charge more for it.
Will Stabley is the Founder and Senior Editor of Stabley Times.
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