Enemy of My Enemy

This week’s New Yorker has an execellent article by Ken Auletta that looks at how Apple‘s iPad has taken on Amazon.com‘s Kindle in the e-book space, and what its advent has done for publishers.

The takeaway: by opening up the distribution market (via Apple’s iTunes store) and platform, Apple has effectively broken Amazon.com’s initial monopoly on pricing. Until the iPad launch, Amazon had capped e-book prices at $9.99, much to the consternation of the publishing industry. Apple’s entrance made some early buzz (the “iPad as Kindle–Killer” meme was ubiquitous, and, I argued, premature) but also forced open the rift between Amazon and New York.

The article is worth reading to the end. It really gets at the heart of what’s shaping the future of the book industry.