Apple iPad disrupts Amazon ebook monopoly

It has finally happened. Publishers are so desperate to survive and Apple so hungry to succeed with the iPad, that Amazon has blinked, and agreed to the usual Apple 70/30 deal with publishers, so perhaps the iBook store will not be as monopolistic on prices as the iTunes store.

"Publishers aren't wasting any time getting their books onto the new iPad.
Publishers Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Kaplan Publishing, McGraw-Hill Education, and Pearson have signed deals to be among the first to port their textbooks over to Apple's new tablet. Heading to the iPad as well as the iPhone and iPod Touch will be their textbooks, study guides, and test prep manuals.

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Textbook publishers heading to iPad by Lance Whitney

And now Mr Murdoch, Australian emigre, reminding us that newspaper and magazine publishers are desperate for the iPad, has weighed into the battle -

"Rupert Murdoch has suggested the iPad and the Kindle would be ''unloved and unsold'' without creativity from companies like his News Corporation.
Tablet computers, e-readers and smartphones would be unloved ''empty vessels'' without quality creative content, he said in New York on Tuesday as News Corp opened a new front in its battle to get people to pay for journalism and entertainment."
see story: iPad unloved without us: Murdoch

"Amazon and Macmillian have not yet got the perfect deal: Macmillan  demanded a price hike for its best-sellers in electronic books to $12.99-$14.99, from $9.99, so Amazon initially stopped selling all Macmillan titles." see the story: Amazon reshelves Macmillan titles but not e-books

"Online retailer Amazon.com Inc resumed selling hardcover and paperback books from Macmillan Publishers late on Friday."

"HarperCollins joined Macmillan in trashing Amazon’s $9.99 model and now Hachette is on the bandwagon. They’re all looking to Apple and the iPad to save their profit margins in the electronic reader market and Amazon’s surrendering means that you Kindle owners can probably expect your e-book prices to go up to match Apple."

Story: Amazon Facing Heat From Third Publisher Over Book Price Issue

"In a foolish public relations move, Amazon.com  said that it would "capitulate," and accused Macmillan of having a "monopoly" over its titles. (I guess it takes one to know one). It had expressed disagreement by temporarily ceasing sales of all Macmillan books. At deadline Wednesday afternoon, some titles published by Macmillan's imprints, such as the best-selling novel "Sarah's Key" and "Priceless" -- ironically about the myth of fair value and the hidden psychology of price -- were still not available from Amazon directly, only its resellers." see full story:  

Commentary: iPad disappoints but Steve Jobs looks shrewd Therese Poletti's Tech Tales -Amazon looking foolish in e-book flap  

The other major theme of the week is that of content and technologies used by the Apple iPad.

The lack of Flash (by Adobe) is a major criticism of the iPad, but Steve Jobs himself has all but declared war on Adobe Flash:

"The iPhone, and now the iPad, both lack support for Adobe Flash, an inexplicable omission for many users who have become used to Flash as one of the most common plugins on their desktop and laptop computers.
Jobs and Adobe have traded barbs over the issue. Adobe has called the iPad restricted and Jobs has fired back with claims that Adobe is lazy and its software causes the Mac to crash."
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Flashpoint as Jobs takes aim at Adobe  by ASHER MOSES February 1, 2010 - 3:12PM

Adobe's CTO Kevin Lynch has countered: "it is unlikely that HTML5 will supplant the need for Flash in the foreseeable future. "If HTML could reliably do everything Flash" can, it would "certainly save us a lot of effort," Lynch says. But because Flash is still enabling more than 75 percent of Web video, according to Lynch, Flash will be around "even as HTML advances."

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CTO Counters Steve Jobs' Claim that Adobe Is 'Lazy' by Sarah Jacobsson, PC World Feb 4, 2010 12:29 pm