Today’s Wall Street Journal reports on a negotiation between HarperCollins and Apple to release ebooks for the new Apple tablet device to be announce next Wednesday. The article indicates HarperCollins staff leaked this story but a photo caption in the WSJ online edition claims an “announcement” by the publisher. This is probably sloppy journalism unless this is an Apple sanctioned leak as Apple normally never permits partners and suppliers to pre-announce anything. Read the WSJ article here.
This should be good news for both authors and the reading public, but the story suggests the price of these ebook editions will be between $14.99 and $19.99. I suspect this is bogus or simply HarperCollins’ hoped for position. At such high prices, the viability of ebooks will depend largely upon the physical appeal of the Apple product rather than the content of the books themselves. We will have more on the state of ebooks and Apple thingys later this week.