Apple, Amazon Cutting EBook Prices?

It was only a couple of days ago that a federal judge approved a settlement between the Justice Department and 3 major publishers over pricing fixing of digital books. The ruling will enable Amazon and other retailers to drop the prices of e-books in the future.

I think that everybody competing with Amazon in the e-book market had better fasten their seat belts … I would expect Amazon to be leading the charge to cut prices on the most high-profile e-books as soon as the decision allows them to do so. As soon as that starts to happen, all the books that are competing with them will have to reconsider their prices.

Mike Shatzkin, the founder and chief executive of the Idea Logical Company was quoted as saying on NYTimes.com. It seems Amazon has wasted no time in cutting prices. In fact, many HarperCollins Kindle books seem to no longer have “price set by the publisher.” Amazon does not have a deal with all publishers. But many books are already being discounted. Apple is also discounting books. B&N is following suit as well.

This ruling enables Amazon and other retailers to be more aggressive with their e-book prices. The settlement blocks publishers from controlling the retail price of e-books for the next couple of years. If you are a fan of titles by large publishers such as HarperCollins, the time may be right to get some of those while they are being discounted.