Apple iBookstore bestsellers to match Amazon's price
updated 02:05 pm EDT, Wed March 24, 2010
Some iPad book prices to match Kindle's
Many titles on Apple's iBookstore will carry the same price as their Amazon Kindle equivalents when the store and the iPad go live on April 3rd, a leak may have confirmed today. A pre-release look at the store has 27 of the 32 top books costing $10, or the same as a typical Kindle book. The current list seen by AppAdvice has just one $13 title.
Based on public demos and pre-unveiling leaks, many had assumed that Apple would charge higher than Amazon, at about $13 to $15 for new releases. The freshly discovered pricing, if it carries over to the public store, would all but negate the Kindle's advantage as many of the most popular titles would cost the same.
Jobs had hinted that the prices would be the same in an on-camera conversation with columnist Walt Mossberg, but neither Jobs nor his company have publicly confirmed any expectations.
The $10 price could be damaging to publishers, as Apple's 30 percent take of sales could leave companies with less money than the wholesale model Amazon has normally used. Kindle books are regularly sold at a loss to reach the $10 target and potentially give publishers far more per book, even if the model isn't sustainable.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Apr 2008
Sold at a loss??
It's a 500K digital file. There is not such thing as selling at a loss.