Has the mighty Amazon met its eBook match?
First came the news earlier this month that the online retail giant was raising its eBook royalty rate in response to the upcoming Apple iPad announcement.
Now reports are coming in that Amazon is starting to budge on its $9.99 pricing for eBooks, no thanks again to — you guessed it — Apple. Apparently, Apple's willingness to let publishers raise the prices of eBooks sold in its iBooks store is putting pressure on Amazon to do the same.
The latest to add heat on Amazon's collar is none other than media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who says his HarperCollins publishing arm just inked a deal with Apple that's apparently more favorable than the deal they have with Amazon, Reuters reports.
It's interesting that Apple has opted to take this approach given how it pretty much mandated music companies to price their songs at the iTunes store at 99 cents for the longest time (kinda' like what Amazon's doing with its $9.99 price point). The extra leverage is certainly good news for the publishing industry, which fears that cheaper eBooks would negatively impact sales of physical books. But for consumers, it likely means that eBook prices will be turning a page upward.
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