NYC: Apple in 11th hour 'tablet' meetings with leading US book publishers

Jonny Evans
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January 20, 2010
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Apple negotiators are in New York this week for a series of eleventh hour “secret” iSlate-related meetings with leading US book publishers, reports The Bookseller.

The report suggests publishers are attempting to ensure greater control over pricing and supply of digital material. The reports follow the Wall Street Journal report yesterday which named HarperCollins US as one of the parties in the negotiations.

Publishers are seeking an "agency model" with Apple, whereby they control access to the digital file and the price it is sold at. It seems all of the six largest US publishers are involved in these discussions.

However, with the tablet launch looming, it seems final deals may not now be in place before the product’s anticipated January 27 introduction.

Richard Charkin, executive director of Bloomsbury Publishing, is eager to meet the new device. "The fact that Apple is coming in is terrific. E-books are already happening with the Kindle – we have been pleasantly surprised by the volume of e-book sales – but this will accelerate it."

“US publishers are desperate to combat the $10 Kindle price tag pushed by Amazon.com, and believe that if enough weight is given to it other retailers will be forced to follow,” the report explains.

Amazon is also meeting with publishers this week.

Comments (5)

Nathan Hillery (not verified) | January 20, 2010 - 5:31am

I noticed that none of the paint techniques used in the event logo are touch-based (i.e. using paintbrush, finger, pen, etc.). They all are things you do from a distance - spray paint, splatter, drip, etc.  This leads me to speculate that the Table UI will be gesture-based, sensing where your hand/finger is and reacting like you had touched the screen.  This solves the problem I've had with imagining touch interface on larger surfaces, especially vertically-mounted ones.

DesignPro | January 20, 2010 - 6:50am

I don't think this says anything about final deals not being in place - i think they are using the momentum of the launch to bring on as many partners as possible.  Also nice to see BOTH Apple and Amazon being aggressive here - will accelerate the switchover from print to electronic media.

 

Though I think Apple is clearly going to outclass Amazon in terms of hardware with a broad range of features and abilities - think amazons best bet is to get out of the hardware business and just sell the content to users on a variety of devices.

 

 

In College (not verified) | January 20, 2010 - 10:12am

With college textbooks becoming unmanageably expensive and apple's niche hold on a younger demographic it would be nice to see the ability to buy or rent textbooks on this new product.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | January 24, 2010 - 10:55am

I think the colors suggest that they are opening up the iphone for all carriers.  Just seems like each color represents a cell carrier.  Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, ATT etc..

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | January 25, 2010 - 9:38am

iPage or iBook