Apple and Amazon in battle of the Books

In what is appearing as a new twist, apple is trying to wrest control of the ebook market from Amazon. Amazon's introduction of the Kindle reader saw it approaching book publishers with a $9.99 flat rate for ebooks compared with a $15 tag for hardcover versions. This sparked off a reaction from publishers feeling they'll sell too cheap. But Apple with the introduction of the iPad which some people consider a better reading device than the Kindle because of its color multitouch screen is now offering publishers to sell titles at their own price. This strategy, industry observers say could be an incentive to publishers to draw away from the Amazon flat rate pricing model. But what happens next, would consumers rather buy an ebook rather than a hardcover for almost the same price?