I think the process is like this: - Publisher says "I want $10 for this e-book. You distributors can decide the actual 'list price'" - Amazon starts selling at

I think the process is like this: - Publisher says "I want $10 for this e-book. You distributors can decide the actual 'list price'" - Amazon starts selling at $9 as losses $1 per book - to help drive Kindle sales - Publishers freak out, not about the now, but the future as Amazon has 90% market share of e-books - Enter Jobs and Apple who says "Oh here's what you do. You tell them the street price has to be $x and we'll keep 70% and you get 30%" - How do we make Amazon comply? Well, Apple insert the most favored nation clause saying that a price offered to anyone is the same price that they must Apple is selling at. - The book publishing executives also make the mistake of getting together every few months to discuss strategy and how the whole pricing thing was going (Dumb!) So Apple, getting ready to launch the iPad, saw the stress with the publishers and a way to reign in Amazon and used their business savvy to help the publishers connect the dots.