Allen Weiner

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Allen Weiner
Research VP
7 years at Gartner
23 years IT industry

Allen Weiner shares insights on how to monetize digital marketing through commerce. His focus on “Commerce Everywhere” provides perspective on how social, mobile, search and emerging channels can be tapped to improve customer experiences and drive business results … Read Full Bio

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Amazon’s First Response to the Apple Tablet

by Allen Weiner  |  January 20, 2010  |  2 Comments

Amazon has plans to change its royalty schedule for publishers beginning this summer, doing a 180 on its 70-30 split. There are rules a’plenty, but it’s a clear pre-emptive move in the face of Apple’s possible launch of a tablet-based device. Apple is said to be willing to offer publishers a split that more resembles a 70-30 split than the original Amazon model. Amazon’s next move? Maybe some change in supporting Adobe DRM? Anything is possible.

2 Comments »

Category: blogging citizen media Microsoft Mobile Newspapers Publishing Yahoo     Tags: , , , , , ,

2 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Brian Prentice   January 21, 2010 at 12:59 am

    Assuming Apple’s tablet is launched next week, how does a announcement by Amazon to re-jig their royalty model with an additional contingency-laden option on June 30th constitute a \pre-emptive\ strike?

    Surely Amazon is aware by now what type of deal Apple would be striking with the publishers. Could it be that they’re reacting to the realization that they’ve been caught with the Kindle business model pants firmly around their ankles?

  • 2 Allen Weiner   January 21, 2010 at 1:45 pm

    The move, along with the somewhat lightweight announcement of a limited SDK (Kindle Development Kit) are attempts to take some attention away from Apple’s efforts to take away some of its book business revenue. In truth, neither company will “dominate” the e-book business or, more importantly, the app-based newspaper and magazine future.