By making the iPod bigger, Apple created competition for Amazon's Kindle.
Publishers are rejoicing. They're so happy that several of the major houses have already signed agreements with Apple to provide content (i.e. books) at prices they can live with.
Take that, Amazon. $9.99 for a Kindle version that hurts the bottom line of the publisher? Just try to get content from the big publishers now.
Concern about a monopoly drove the likes of Macmillan into Apple's warm embrace. With the Kindle as the only game in town, and Amazon setting the pace, publishers were afraid that it would be a case of take it or leave it, and no one wanted to risk getting left behind as the great e-book revolution rolls along.
By offering a higher price, Apple's tablet gives hope. It's a matter of withholding rights from Amazon for e-books if the behemoth won't cooperate and lift that $9.99 mark a little higher. Certainly Amazon could claim collusion to fix prices, but a monopoly stands on shaky ground when it argues about price fixing. Without the giant iPhone reading device, it's Amazon doing the price fixing, to the detriment of its content suppliers.
Thus far, Random House is holding out, to see which way the e-book wind blows. Will people flock to buy the Apple tablet because it does more than a Kindle? Will its high price be off-putting, or seen as better value overall?
And considering the state of the economy and the general lack of disposal income, will book sales continue to slide, in both digital and analog formats?
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