BeamItDown Software will be ceasing operations on 31st May 2011. Here’s the reason- “We absolutely do not want to do this, but Apple has made it completely impossible for anyone but Apple to make a profit selling contemporary ebooks on any iOS device. We cannot survive selling books at a loss and so we are forced to go out of business. We bet everything on Apple and iOS and then Apple killed us by changing the rules in the middle of the game. This is a very sad day for innovation on iOS in this important application category. We are a small company that thought we could build a better product. We think that we did but we are powerless against Apple’s absolute control of the iOS platform.”
So what do you think will happen when Apple and Amazon get together to discuss this problem? Can Apple make an exception because Amazon is so big? Will Amazon back down? Personally I don’t see either happening, but I suspect that Apple will not want to let the Kindle app leave the app store as well. Thoughts?
Apple needs to fix this. It’s one thing to take 30% of an App’s price but 30% of a magazine or book price is nuts. Either they should knock the percentage down to maybe 5% or remove it completely. And iBooks in Canada continues to have far fewer titles than Kindle or Kobo. I’m waiting to see what happens to the other book and magazine sellers.
Apple could very well kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
Bob
Isn’t nice to see Apple encouraging small business to use their platform…
Isn’t this a case of forcing anti-competative business trading? I am surprised that a move to drive small business out of business leaving exclusive deals with wholesalers isn’t illegal. I am no business law expert, but irrespective, it’s all wrong.
As Bob says, I think a 5% margin is more than reasonable. Overall, it would be better for business overall to have many players, and give customers choice. But then, I have noticed, that giving customers choice is not high on Apple’s priorities.