February 6th, 2010, 11:32PM in Business by Marc LequimeView Comments
The iPad announcement on the 27th changed eBooks forever?
Apple have kinda killed the whole idea of a $9.99 eBook – since the launch of the iPad, all the people partnered with Apple appear to be pushing on Amazon for the more expensive eBook model. Instead of the original Amazon controlled price of $9.99, each book publisher are now pushing for $14.99-$15.99 per book for new books, and then have that price slowly lower over time.
Macmillan was the first to suggest the prices, the noble one, and it suffered a brunt attack from Amazon – pulled from the Bookstore and the Kindle for a few days. However, Amazon quickly woke up to the fact that Macmillan was only the first – and that all the other ones of Apple’s educational partners will eventually succumb to this – 3 of them already have.
Now two other partners, Hachette and HarperCollins, have both dropped the $9.99 in favour of the $14.99 pricing strategy, and it won’t be long until Simon & Schuster and Penguin go for it to. Maybe even Apple’s dropped educational partner, McGrawHill, will change too.
Amazon’s strategy has slowly crumbled, but they may have tricks up their sleeves – such as exclusivity on new books and other tactics. We’ll have to wait and see.
But yeah, eBooks (iBooks?) are going to start costing more. Very soon.
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