What the iPad Might Mean for Book Publishing

Into a sea of stories on Apple’s new iPad yesterday, covering everything from specs to speculation, the New York Times’ Motoko Rich piped up with some book-related facts and figures:

When Steven P. Jobs announced the new iBooks app, he said five of the six largest publishers -- Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster -- had signed on to provide e-book content for the new tablet.

In negotiations with Apple, publishers agreed to a business model that gives them more power over the price that customers pay for e-books. Publishers had all but lost that power on Amazon.com’s Kindle e-reader.

Rich’s piece is here. January’s entry into the sea of introductory iPad pieces is here.