Everyone’s all a twitter, er, I mean a flutter over Apple’s iPad. I’ve written a number of 
posts here about it. I am actually excited about it. But there is a possibility that the iPad may end up hurting eBook readers.
I have a Kindle and have a friend who enjoys his Sony reader. I love being able to pull out my Kindle and sample a chapter of a book that someone recommends. I love having a number of translations of the Bible as well as a dozen or more books available in a small device. I love my Kindle. But I think what I really like is that most books are much cheaper on the Kindle than in paper form.
Now that Apple is letting the publishers control much more of the pricing for their soon to
be released iPad, Amazon is trying hard to keep publishers in the fold. Could the cheaper eBook prices go away or at least go up as a result? It is insane that in most markets where competition drives prices down for consumers, this is one arena where it might go up. The reason is that consumers are not as important as the publishers, who are clutching control of their content with a death grip. If these companies do not get the publishers on board there is nothing to sell to consumers. So they are willing to temporarily ignore the best interests of the customers, paying more to publishers in the form of control over pricing. The result is more expensive books for readers.
I believe this is a temporary thing; electronic publishing is going to make books much cheaper eventually. But in the interim those of us with Kindles may have to pay more thanks to Apple’s deal with publishers in the days leading up to iPad’s launch.
