Apple working to further iPad reading, eBooks to get more expensive
Many sources are reporting that Apple (Steve Jobs, himself) has wined and dined with the biggest publishers of books, magazines and newspapers since the iPad announcement on the 27th of January. That’s great for us in a few ways… but there’s one big glaring issue with these conversations. Price.
Apple seems to be encouraging — some say offering flexibility — book publishers to increase their eBook prices. Publishers have been dreaming of better pricing for quite some time as Amazon’s $9.99 was actually costing Amazon money… and in return, it sold a lot of Kindles. Amazon has been pushing publishers into the $9.99 figure in order to make their Kindle more appealing to the consumer. As it turns out, that $9.99 price won’t be hanging around.
Three of the publishers currently partnered with Apple have told Amazon that they’re hiking prices or they’re leaving. This doesn’t come to us as a shocking revelation; you could even see Steve Jobs dancing around the issue with Walt Mossberg in a post-announcement interview. He specifically said that “the prices will be the same,” without giving any more information on the matter. Apple is not a company that will sell at a loss. They make very little off of their current digital download offerings, but there’s always something heading to their bank.
The fact that Steve has been spotted conversing with magazines and newspapers is great for us as avid readers. In an “off the record” meeting with The New York Times, Steve said that books were his first priority… but he’s working on additional reading content in the time between announcement and product launch. At this point, we’re hearing about discussions with The Wallstreet Journal, The New York Times, textbook publishers and even Time Magazine. Some critics scoffed and wondered, “Where’s my iMag Store?” Well, it looks like you’re going to get it.
