Why are itunes books so much more expensive than kindle books?

Question

Level 1

9 points

Why are itunes books so much more expensive than kindle books?

I am a recent convert from Android to iPad and iPhone. Even though I have the Kindle app on both devices and can read my Kindle books, it seemed to make sense to make any new book purchases through iTunes since I already purchase apps and music. However, after comparing about a half dozen books on both Kindle and iTunes, the iTunes books were all higher in price by 30 to 50%. This doesn't make sense to me, so I thought I'd throw it out as a question and see if anyone knew why.

iBook, iOS 5.1.1

Posted on Jun 15, 2012 12:46 PM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

116,084 points

Jun 15, 2012 1:43 PM in response to gsteeves

gsteeves wrote:

This doesn't make sense to me

You should be thankful that price competition is alive and well. Amazon's books can also be read on a laptop/desktop, while those from iTunes can only be read on an iOS device.

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Answer 2

Jun 23, 2012 10:14 AM in response to gsteeves

I'm struggling with the same thing. I prefer to buy all things Apple. If the prices were even close, I would, but I just found yet another book that I need for work where Kindle is literally half the price!!!! One thing I won't do is end up with half of my ebooks in Kindle and half in iBooks, so if Apple doesn't fix this, I'm afraid I will have to buy all my books from amazon. And once you start down either path, it's hard to switch back, so I hope Apple is paying attention.

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Answer 3

Jul 21, 2012 9:23 PM in response to gsteeves

I've noticed the same thing. For example, iWork'09 is $31 from Apple yet $17 from Amazon. If I purchase it from Amazon and read it on my iPad via Kindle app will it look the same as if I had bought it from Apple? I'd like to know if there is any difference in readability.

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