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This blog is dedicated to the topics of Course materials, Innovation, and Technology in Education. it is intended as an information source for the college store industry, or anyone interested in how course materials are changing. Suggestions for discussion topics or news stories are welcome.

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Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Barnes & Noble to match Amazon’s e-book pricing

As mentioned in a previous posting, in March, Barnes & Noble acquired Fictionwise, owner of the popular eReader.com e-book store, with plans to incorporate the company into its digital strategy. This week, the company announced that it has revised the pricing structure of the e-books on eReader.com to compete with Amazon. Currently, Amazon’s e-books sell for $9.99 and now on eReader.com, all new e-books including New York Times Bestsellers will sell for $9.95 and no e-book will sell for more than $12.95.

An interesting article from Fast Company discusses how this proves that Amazon is defining the cost of e-books just as Apple defined the price for digital music. Large companies like Barnes & Noble can afford to lower their prices and take a loss initially but smaller competitors will have a tougher time. The article notes, “Thus, B&N’s concession to Amazon’s pricing structure could mark the beginning of a brave new world in e-books, one ruled by the dictates of Amazon. Once readers have it in their heads that an e-book is worth ten bucks and no more, everyone from publishers to writers to competitors like B&N are going to have to bend to that price. It would seem that paradigm shift is already underway.”