Why is iTunes pricing so much more than Amazon

So we are to believe that the artist is the one making thse prices so high? I have a very hard time with that. Just so I am clear with all that has been said here in defense of Appple. Major League the movie is 17.99 on iTunes, and currently $9.49 usd on Amazon. On sale from the previous price of $14.99 usd. Please everyone that wants to respond in a snarky defensive way please hear me out.

I am to believe that artists and movie houses are forcing Apple to charge 8.50 more for a title than Amazon and Apple has zero to do with this? Apple's off the top 30% has nothing to do with this? Guys you are fooling yourselves here. Even at the previous price of 14.99 we are talking a physical Blu Ray here.. I think I forgot to mention that. Amazon is selling the "Wild Thing" edition of Major Leage for 9.49. Apple is selling their HD version for $17.99. I want to believe that this is caused by someone else, but I just can't. Is Amazon getting 30% off the top? I highly doubt it. I am aware that Amazon is notorious for selling items at a loss, but this steep? Doesn't make snese to me. Competition or not, Amazon still is running a business.

Bottom line for me is I want to buy more from iTunes but I can't justify the prices on a lot of things. I seem to find some decent deals here and there on iTunes for movies, and some gems from time to time in the music section. Overall comparitivly speaking it's cheaper to buy a hard copy from someplace else. It's a shame really....becasue just a few bucks less on Apple's behalf would make them a LOT more cash. I think the folks here confused by the higher prices woudl definitely agree to that.

For books that I want to keep and use for future reference, primarily non-fiction, I've been buying whatever I can through iTunes, even if a bit more expensive than Amazon. Amazon doesn't let you download a book to keep, it just stays in their cloud. What if they go out of business (not likely at this point, obviously, but all companies are vulnerable)? Whereas when I buy through iTunes, I can back it up and not be dependent on Apple to keep providing downloads in the future. So from that perspective, iTunes is a better deal in some instances. Granted, Amazon has a larger selection of non-fiction works for reference, and I can always buy the physical book (pricey by comparison with the Kindle versions, if there is one for the book I'm looking for). So I look at iTunes first, then compare with what Amazon has. Really, it's just like shopping for anything else. Comparison shopping is always smarter. However, it's clear from recent court decisions that Apple isn't totally dependent on what sellers want to charge - there's the whole issue of price-fixing being debated legally.

tasa wrote:

For books that I want to keep and use for future reference, primarily non-fiction, I've been buying whatever I can through iTunes, even if a bit more expensive than Amazon. Amazon doesn't let you download a book to keep, it just stays in their cloud.

Yes they do. You have to download it to read it, put it on yoru computer or your device.

I stand (somewhat) red-faced and (somewhat) corrected! Just shows how one can develop tunnel vision when addicted to the iOS system. This has been a good learning opportunity. I actually find myself using my MacBook Pro less and less, unless I'm accessing it remotely with Splashtop remote. As a result, I've simply never accessed the kindle app through my MacBook Pro until hitting this thread. After your reply I resolved to see how the Mac version of the Kindle app worked. I've now successfully downloaded all of my Kindle books to my MacBook and will back them up on an external hard drive. I certainly do not want to weigh down my IPADs or iPhone memories by keeping over 50 books stored on my iOS devices, so this Mac backup could be useful. Amazon has been known to lose user files, in my case at one time when Audible was purchased by Amazon the login system for both sites was a mess, and Amazon lost some of my purchase records.

However, I'm not sure how I would use these saved files. I now have a folder with a list of items that looks like this:

B00FBFM3E_EBOK.azw

B000FBFM3E_EBOK.mbp

B000FBFM3E_EBOK.phi

B000FBFN1U_EBOK.apnx

Each file ending in ".apnx" is preceded by a symbol of a book. The other three files for each book are preceded by the dogeared page symbol. However, not all books have all four files, and only the three classics which came preinstalled in the Kindle Mac app are identified by name in the file name in the backup folder, so i wouldn't know which file to import if i needed to. From what I can tell in the research I've done in the past two days, Amazon isn't going out of its way to tell purchasers how to find, create or use these backup files. I changed the default "save to" location from the Library to my Documents folder for easier access.

By contrast, iTunes books, as well as ebooks I've borrowed from my local library (and which get backed up in iTunes when I sync my iOS devices) are very clearly marked in my iTunes files with the name of the book in the name of the file, and the instructions for backing up iTunes books are clearly spelled out by Apple itself.

I did a series of searches on both Google and on the Amazon Kindle forum and this is an example of another problem with backing up Kindle libraries on one's computer - the whole issue of different formats for different devices, so a book formatted for my MacBook won't work on my iPad, for instance. Here's an example of those discussions:

"Please keep in mind that the files will only work on that specific Mac due to the DRM that Vickie mentioned. So if you change Macs they won't work on the new one and you will have to download (again)..." There are a number of similar discussions in the Kindle forum.

So yes, theoretically I can download my Kindle purchases and back them up in case of a failure by Amazon, for whatever reason, to keep track of and perpetually make available my Kindle book collection, but I'm not sure how practical it is as a failsafe.

I realize further expansion of the original question may not belong in this thread by now, but I posted this response as I believe it is pertinent in relation to the whole issue of the advantages of iTunes vs Amazon and their relative price structures. I still feel that Amazon purchases are not meant by Amazon to be backed up by the user, that they want purchasers to be totally dependent and trusting of Amazon to manage our reading libraries. Personally, I don't have that kind of trust in Amazon. While I enjoy the many services Amazon offers, I want to have some reasonable control of things I buy.

I don't, as I said ... But thanks for repeating me, my goodness. I like apple products as much as the next guy, the past two responses have been nothing short of apple fanboy, I don't want to hear anything negative or contribute to the conversation constructively with anything but one liners. That "flame" a conversation.

Anyway for all intents and purposes, marketing and sales will either inflate their prices across the board or just in certain marketplaces to cover costs. Ultimately the cost will get passed onto the consumer.

gmy wrote:

I like apple products as much as the next guy, the past two responses have been nothing short of apple fanboy,

Not at all.

They were simple facts. No one was pushing you to use iTunes or purchase from iTunes store.

I quoted exactly what I was responding to so there was no misinterpretation.

If you did not mean it, don't write it.

gmy wrote:
You're merely trying to create a conflict where one doesn't exist

Not at all.

You who pulled out the "fanboy" comment, which is usually a (poor) attempt to insult/put down someone and fan the flames. Nothing in those two very short posts could be construed as "fanboy".

Ok, and I understand your response to this would be something like, "Then Don't". Ok, that's forum flaming for your historical information

.

Posting simple facts in response to inaccurate statements is forum flaming?

How about the word "fanboy"? When have you ever seen that used when it isn't intended to stir someone up?

If you don't like that you cannot use iTunes movies on the X-Box (or whatever), what else should we tell you, besides use something else & send suggestions to Apple?

How is that "forum flaming"?

Read beyond the first two lines before crafting your responses instead of feeling empowered to tell people they're incorrect just because you can on one particular item.

You were incorrect on that one particular item. That's why I quoted only that line.

Please don't construe my responses as me being disheartened and not being able to buy from apple cheaper

I didn't construe the rest of your comments as much at all.

They weere your thoughts. Okay.

Discuss all you want about the why-to's and therefore's of iTunes pricing. I have no problem with that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_%28Internet%29

I used "fanboy" after my 3rd attempt at responding in an intelligent fashion getting "one liners and flamebait in response". It reminds me of a situation in which a co-worker of mine made the generalization that a specific politician was "racist" and after asking him how this politician was racist, turned red and backpedaled at his gross unfactual generalization.

Sure, my perception of apple's pricing is that it's higher, based on my experience with renting certain movies in the past month. My generalization was grossly overassuming in applying that perception across the board in my attempt to contribute to the conversation. After doing additional research, I admitted and corrected my assumption.

What frustrates me in forums and e-mails is when people avoid the basic structure of debating, which is:

1. What is the question?
   "Is iTunes pricing that much higher than Amazon's?"
2. What is my belief or stand?
   iTunes is at least or more expensive than its competitors.
3. What is my factual basis?
   Personal experience with recent rentals and comparison of sales from a recent movie rental.

When people omit step 3, it makes for a frustrating conversation when the responses are:

• "No they aren't"
• "Then don't. No one forces you to rent/purchase from iTunes."

Neither of your first to responses make a single attempt to ellicit an intelligent conversation. By response 3, you're already planted the "flamebait" with your first two responses and the flaming ensues (congratulations). Now, you're manipulating the conversation to turn this into a "flamewar" and suggest that I caused it? I'm sorry, but there's nothing else of value for me in carrying on this discussion unless there's some intelligent base to it...which this thread has lost. Ok, next thread.

I've decided to unsubscribe from this conversation, as it's kinda pointless to monitor it at this point but is a useful example on how flamewars start.

gmy wrote:

I've decided to unsubscribe from this conversation, as it's kinda pointless to monitor it at this point but is a useful example on how flamewars start.

Especially when you are the one attempting to start them!

Otherwise, good luck!

@michael. The point is not that anyone pushing me , or anyone else to use iTunes. In your attempt to dismiss the facts in regard to ITunes pricing you are avoiding, or at least missing the point. My original point was that I want to buy more movies from iTunes. Apple's sometimes ridiculously higher prices are keeping me from doing that on a regular basis. Apple is not the end all to everything. For as much as I love their products , their pricing sometimes just doesn't make sense. That is a fact

The point is that the iTunes Store is wayy too expensive and it dimishes the enjoyment of an iPad. Thats the bottom line. Now maybe it is the content providers that are to blame for the high prices but why is it that you can get the same content at other places cheaper? That should be an issue for Apple to figure out because they sell a device and want people to use that device to consume media content. Hopefully from their iTunes Store. The problem now is that the high prices will move people away from Apple devices more and more. Thats what high prices do. They cause people to not only look elsewhere but eventually want to find altogether different solutions for their hardware and software needs.

Come to think about it, i dont think that Steve Jobs would have wanted to see the prices to be so high and would have negoitiated better deals. The success of the iPhone and the App store initially was because the apps were so cheap to buy. Now we see that the iTunes store has the complete opposite appeal of the App store. Apple needs to do something about that. i cant get any movies on my iPad because i feel like im getting ripped off from the iTunes Store. Nobody wants to feel ripped off!

trajan1 wrote:

The point is that the iTunes Store is wayy too expensive

Except it isn't.

Come to think about it, i dont think that Steve Jobs would have wanted to see the prices to be so high and would have negoitiated better deals.

He negotiated the current deals.

@Chris CA

You have your opinion of the pricing and so do others. What is the point to your post? If you don't admit that some things are out of line in price compared to a blu ray or Amazon; you would be either misinformed, or lying to defend Apple's pricing scheme. Either way some people don't agree with you. I realize that Amazon prices products and hardware at a loss to sell more... but blu Ray movies seem to be pretty consistent.

Also yes Jobs negotiated the current deals in 2006? After nearly eight years and with other players now in the game it is certainly time for the pricing model to at least be looked at.

This is a discussion why are you and some others so hard up to defend everything that Apple does? It makes me almost laugh. I love, and use the products every day, but I don't look at Apple as infallible. Which seems to be the thought process of some folks here.

Don't like it, don't buy on iTunes.

Not paying and defeating the DRM is theft - aka - stealing.

MJ