Google has been discussing its vision for distributing books online for several years and for months has been evangelizing about its new service, called Google Editions. The company is hoping to distinguish Google Editions in the marketplace by allowing users to access books from a broad range of websites using an array of devices, unlike rivals that are focused on proprietary devices and software.
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Publishers have yet to publicly commit to participate in the service but Google isn't expected to run into much trouble getting them to join. Publishers tend to believe the more outlets to sell books the better. Even the smallest independent bookstore will have access to a sophisticated electronic-book sales service with a vast selection of titles.
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...users of Google Editions would be able to read books from a web browser—meaning that the type of e-reader device wouldn't matter. The company also could build software to optimize reading on certain devices like an iPhone or iPad but hasn't announced any specific plans.
Professor James Grimmelmann (NY Law School) makes an important point:
These aren’t books under the settlement; these will be e-books that publishers have explicitly authorized Google to sell.
In other words, these are not the books the court case is all about. Nevertheless, Grimmelmann adds that it does show that Google is, "very serious about the book business."
Unlike its competitors, Google is opting to allow a host of smaller booksellers to join its online store, something industry experts say could be a boon to the Canadian industry and consumers.
Although some have suggested Google Editions will launch as early as next month, a person familiar with the project said that timeline is likely optimistic, and the service will probably go online later in the year.
Conventional wisdom says that more participants in a market result in lower prices. But the current design of the e-book market works against this. Publishers are throwing their weight behind a so-called agency model, through which they sell the books to online distributors -- like Amazon, Google or Apple -- and set the prices themselves, yielding a portion of each sale to the re-seller.
This model does not allow for competitive pricing, as the publishers will have little incentive to under-price each other. The recent brouhaha with Amazon -- which was selling e-books for the Kindle at $9.99 under objections from publishers who thought the price devalued their books, is a case in point.
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