Apple iPad

Or it could just be that the price hasn't gone up in years, and now seems like a good time to raise the prices on them? They've been $9.99 for as long as I can remember. Correlation does not necessitate causation.

Technically, it is because publishers wanted to set their own prices for published e-books; prices have always been at $9.99 because that is what Amazon wants the selling price to be. Publishers are pushing for higher prices, so have incentive to sign up with Apple instead of Amazon.

At that time, Apple CEO Steve Jobs made a point of saying that publishers could set their own prices and pay Apple a 30 percent cut for distribution, similar to how the company handles its App Store offerings. Jobs knew what he was doing, too, as this is exactly the model that the publishers have always wanted. It was the perfect opening for publishers, and it just so happens that the companies that have begun to push back on Amazon have signed on as partners for Apple's iPad launch (Macmillan, Harper Collins, and Hachette, we're looking at you).

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