Part 1
Steve Jobs thrilled some people and infuriated others when he announced that Apple’s new eBook app will use the agency model for pricing.
Translation: publishers can set the price of their eBooks, and Apple will take a standard 35% discount, or commission.
Amazon was up in arms, because it believes eBooks should be a low-cost alternative to paper books.
Translation: keeping all Kindle prices under $9.95 would help push Amazon’s Kindle—which requires a unique format unusable on any other eBook reader—into the top spot in the eBook-reader market.