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Digital Books vs. Printed Books (Porters Five Forces) There are 63 replies: View/Reply options

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Timothy Ray Eckhardt Students

Digital Books vs. Printed Books (Porters Five Forces) Original post: Wed 9/28/2011 at 5:34 PM

Digital Books

Buyer Power: Buyer power is high. Customers have many companies to choose from and can easily shop for the lowest price. Internet shopping gives customers the opportunity to search multiple sites for the lowest price.

Supplier Power: Supplier power is low due to the growing demand for digital books. Digital is the future for the book industry, and many companies are putting their resources into digital books instead of print.

Threat of substitute products or services: The threat of substitute products is high due to the advantages of technology. Many companies have entered this market which is extremely competitive. Everyone attempts to make their product better than the competition. With the unlimited resources technology brings, new products become outdated very quickly.

Threat of new entrants: The threat of new entrants is high with many companies entering the market daily. While this is a technology driven product, startup companies can enter the market easily and provide a niche in the market.

Rivalry among existing competitors: Rivalry among existing competitors is very high. This is a very competitive market. Companies such as Amazon give customers the opportunity to search for the lowest price at home, while the big bookseller stores struggle to stay alive.

Printed Books

Buyer power: Buyer power is high. There are many companies to choose from while shopping for books. The free standing books stores continue to diminish, but internet book stores make it a very competitive and favorable for the customer.

Supplier Power: Supplier power is low. There are still many resources available for print media to make it competitive. This will change as companies continue to invest in digital over print.

Threat of substitute products or services: The threat of substitute products is high. Digital books and the internet are replacing printed books.

Threat of new entrants: The threat of new entrants is low. Companies are not putting their resources into printed books. Digital books are the future, and the resources are being placed there.

Rivalry among existing competitors: Rivalry among existing competitors is still considered high. Internet companies make this a very competitive market. Customer loyalty is low since it is so easy to shop for the lowest price.

Edited:Wed 9/28/2011 at 5:34 PM by Timothy Ray Eckhardt

Jeffrey Stone Faculty

Re: Digital Books vs. Printed Books (Porters Five Forces) Posted: Sun 10/2/2011 at 9:45 PM, in reply to Timothy Ray Eckhardt

Answers are good and correct for the general topics of digital versus printed. Give some thought to how those answers may change when you look at the specifics within the categories.

Digital: Nook versus Kindle versus opensource readers; distributors such as amazon versus public libraries

Printed: Publishing companies, authors, books versus magazines, bookstores versus department stores.

Pick a couple of these and discuss how your answers would be different.

Timothy Ray Eckhardt Students

Re: Re: Digital Books vs. Printed Books (Porters Five Forces) Posted: Tue 10/4/2011 at 11:02 AM, in reply to Jeffrey Stone

If we compare Amazon against public libraries on the digital side I still maintain the same answers for Amazon as I do for digital books. Amazon is in a highly competitive market, and will always have threats from new competitors and outside products. Rivalry among existing competitors can be questionable the way Amazon works. Yes, Amazon has many direct competitors they go against daily, but they also have many other companies they distribute for. Without Amazon many of these smaller companies would not have the resources to survive.

Public libraries has a different result when looking at it witht the five forces model. Buyer power remains high, supplier power remains low and the threat of substitite products remains high. When we look at the digital libraries I consider the threat of new entrants low. Most libraries are funded from schools or cities and not viewed as a money making business. Yes there are new entrants entering the market, but many are brick and mortar libraries transitioning to online digital libraries. Rivalry among existing competitors remains low also due to the fact there are usually very few choices, or you have access to when looking for an online library.

When looking at publishing companies, authors, books in the five forces model they follow the same pattern as I established with the print. When looking at magazines the biggest change is the threat of new entrants. Magazines are still very popular and still considered an impulse item. They are still placed at the checkout stands at most retailers. Digital versions are becoming more popular, but printed magazines are still selling. New magazines enter the market daily, many are short lived fads, but many survive and others have been in production for years. Magazines are the one printed item that I would still consider in a steady market, not declining like printed books.