Barnes & Noble matches Amazon on electronic book pricing

It appears that Amazon.com's pricing model for electronic books -- just under $10 -- is on its way to becoming the norm. Barnes & Noble, on its eReader site, is now offering digital versions of New York Times bestsellers for $9.95, just a hair cheaper than Amazon's standard $9.99 for such books. The downward pressure on e-book pricing has rattled many book publishers.

As Fast Company wrote recently, Amazon with e-books is following the strategy of Apple with digital music, creating a "sticky price in consumers' minds" that, once established, is difficult to dislodge -- and gives Amazon more leverage in negotiations with publishers. Barnes & Noble apparently sees some value in jumping on that bandwagon. I've asked the company for more information on its e-book pricing changes.

Barnes & Noble has been steadily ramping up its electronic book strategy, buying Fictionwise (the firm behind eReader) in March, and announcing plans to develop its own e-bookstore. B&N is also rumored to be working on its own electronic reading device along the lines of Amazon's Kindle.

This week, Barnes & Noble unveiled a new shopping application for the iPhone. The app has a feature that lets users snap photos of book covers with their iPhone camera and get pricing and other product details -- which is similar to technology developed by Snaptell, a startup just acquired by Amazon.

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About Eric Engleman

ERIC ENGLEMAN is senior technology staff writer for TechFlash and the Puget Sound Business Journal, covering online retail giant Amazon.com. Engleman tracks Amazon's increasingly complex business, spanning ecommerce, Kindle, cloud computing, and more. He's been covering technology and other industries for the Business Journal since 2003.

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