EU raids e-book publishers over price fixing

The European Commissionpreliminary UK investigations and suspected the unnamed companies of having "violated EU antitrust rules" by pushing for the agency model in the iBookstore, the Kindle Store and other portals. The structure lets publishers set the pricing and has raised worries of collusion and price fixing that would keep e-books artificially expensive.

Most of the focus so far is believed to have been on more regional publishers such as France's Albin Michel and Hachette Livre, while HarperCollins, Penguin and Random House haven't witnessed raids so far.

Representatives for the Commission were cautious not to make conclusions and said the investigation was in a "very early stage." Any in-depth result could potentially draw in UK investigators to eliminate overlap.

A formal legal action could have deep ramifications for Amazon and Apple. Most major publishers switched to the agency model after Apple hoped to lure them away with more favorable terms. Until the switch, publishers on the Kindle Store and other shops mostly adhered to a wholesale model, where the store owner set the price and publishers charged a flat rate. The method led to lower prices, often $10 or less at Amazon, but led to complaints from publishers. Most were concerned that Amazon was regularly selling below cost and setting artificial expectations for e-book pricing that couldn't be met in the long term.

Amazon was a strong advocate of wholesale, which it used to inflate Kindle market share, but was strongarmed both after the agency model switch and Apple's "most favored nation" terms, which would have prevented publishers from offering a better price elsewhere.

Apple beats Kindle for ebooks in UK

An interesting post over at GigaOM is shedding light on the unanswered question: is the iPad or the Kindle pulling ahead in the race to provide ebooks to customers? Citing Jo Henry, the managing director of Book Marketing Ltd, the answer seems to clearly be Apple, at least in the United Kingdoms.

The data collected by Book Marketing and its parent companies indicates that there are more ebooks read in the UK on the iPad and the iPhone each than read on the Kindle. The same is not true in the US, where Kindle is solidly beating out the iPad andiPhone, even combined. Don't worry though; the same study shows that the iOS devices are gaining ground. It could be a much different story in a year.

Kindle for iOS updated, adding page numbers and progress meters

The Kindle app for iOS (my personal reading app of choice) got a nice update yesterday that brings "real" page numbers into the app. Now, as you read along in some ebooks, you'll get to see where you'd be in the printed version, so if you're reading Kindle books along with a class or book club, you can find the same pages you're all reading together. The update also adds information on the homescreen that shows your progress through the books on your iPhone, and you can now look up words using Google or Wikipedia directly within the app itself. Pretty groovy -- like I said, this is my reading app of choice on the iPhone, and the update only makes it better.

Some of these features were already seen in the Kindle for Mac app available on the App Store. But we'll probably see another Kindle update coming soon anyway, as of course the app has to comply with the new restrictions on subscriptions, including offering the same in-app deals as are offered outside of the app, per Apple's new subscription rules. That shouldn't be too hard to do -- if indeed Amazon wants to do it. We'll have to wait and see on that one.

Kindle Software Update Delivers Public Notes and Page Numbers

The newest Kindle software update has finally put the eReader on pace with books, adding sorely missed page numbers to the device. If an eBook contains page number information, it can now be accessed by pressing the Kindle’s menu button.

The page numbers will match up with those in print books, which will significantly facilitate cross referencing and conversation between people using Kindle and people using print.

If an eBook includes page numbers, it will have a "Page Numbers Source ISBN" under product details on its sales page. Users must have a latest-generation Kindle running software version 3.1 for access to page numbers.

The other software highlight is the introduction of public notes, which lets Kindle owners share their annotations with others. Users just need to follow the person whose notes they'd like to see online through Amazon, and their books will automatically be updated with that person's annotations (if they also have public notes turned on).

Public notes can also be turned off, so that users can follow people without necessarily receiving their public notes.