Amazon Considering E-Books Pricing To Fight iPad Growing Popularity
Several publishers will begin setting prices for e-books on Amazon.com starting Thursday, as the launch date for iPad approaches. The world’s largest online retailer, Amazon.com Inc. has agreed to cut short on heavy discount of e-book best sellers in new pricing deals with two major publishers, CBS Corp.’s Simon & Schuster and News Corp.’s HarperCollins Publishers. The two major giant publishers have decided to determine their own prices for electronic titles, according to The Wall Street Journal and Business Week reports, which also added that Macmillan, Hachette Book Group, and Penguin Group will begin setting their own prices eventually.
Apple’s iPad which will enable users to read e-books, as well as surf the Web, play games, and watch videos, is to be in secret talks with publishers for a deal with similar price points for e-books on the iPad, which may help give publishers more sway over how their books are priced because in order to stay competitive with Apple’s iPad, Amazon needs to keep as many publishers in its corner as possible. After many of them settled at a $9.99 price-point and embraced the iPad’s intent to sell e-books in the $15 range, Amazon was forced to re-evaluate its position. Fascinatingly, Random House, the world’s largest book publisher, still hasn’t selected a side, likely out of fear of the iPad’s negative authority on e-book pricing.
However, Amazon avoided commenting on any of these matters. Amazon currently controls about 90 percent of the e-book market. On the other hand, that market share is expected to dip to 72 percent this year and to 35 percent by 2015, according to Credit Suisse.