Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) Just Sealed Barnes & Noble, Inc. (BKS)’s Fate

Amazon’s ability, then, to bundle paper with digital gives it as much of an advantage over Apple as it does over Barnes & Noble. Sure, many readers may have made the switch wholly to digital (including myself), but there are undoubtedly some readers out there who would like the flexibility of having both the print and digital versions of a book.

Apple isn’t likely to start selling paper books anytime soon, so it’ll never be able to match Amazon in this area.

Admittedly, iBooks aren’t a big part of Apple’s business. In fact, iTunes as a whole is largely insignificant when it comes to Apple’s earnings. But that isn’t to say that they aren’t important. Media sales help keep customers locked into Apple’s ecosystem, making them incredibly loyal. Someone who has bought a lot of iBooks isn’t likely to give up the iPad — to do so would be lose access to the digital books they’ve purchased.

Amazon continues its dominance of the book business
By combining paper book sales with digital copies, Amazon has a huge competitive advantage over its rivals.

Barnes & Noble, already in a precarious state, is heavily exposed. Right now, there are few reasons for book buyers to pick Barnes & Noble over Amazon; Kindle MatchBook makes it only more likely that consumers will go with the Internet retailer. At the same time, Apple may lose out on some iBook customers. To be sure, that won’t turn up in the company’s bottom line overnight, but it does weaken Apple’s iOS ecosystem over the longer term.

Today, $0.31 of every $1 spent on books goes to Amazon. With Kindle MatchBook, that figure should only increase.

The article Amazon Just Sealed Barnes & Noble’s Fate originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Sam Mattera.

Sam Mattera has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Amazon.com, Apple, and Google. The Motley Fool owns shares of Amazon.com, Apple, Google, and Microsoft. 

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