Jeff Bezos Predicts Publishers with Cheap eBooks Will Dominate

By Jason Boog 

jeffbezos-1.gifThis week Fortune magazine landed an interview with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, talking to the executive during a crucial time for the company–considering the eBook price war and the Apple iPad’s swift rise.

In the interview, Bezos defended the Amazon Kindle as a unique device that will continue to captivate readers (despite one expert’s prediction that tablet computers will soon outnumber eReaders). In addition, Bezos issued a veiled warning to publishers about eBook pricing in the interview.

Check out his dramatic quote: “First of all, there are a bunch of publishers of all sizes, and they don’t all have one opinion. There are as many opinions about what the right thing to do is as there are publishers. So you’re seeing that some of them are being very aggressive on prices, pricing their books well below $9.99. Others are trying to do everything they can to make prices as high as possible. And what you’re going to see is a share shift from one group of publishers to this other group of publishers.”