Last week, technology and software company Apple introduced its new e-book sales platform iBooks, based on the company's popular iTunes software. iBooks will operate on Apple's new handheld computing device, the iPad. Both the iPad and iBooks were introduced at an Apple event held in San Francisco on January 27th.
 
Apple—maker of the Macintosh computer, iPod mp3 player, and iPhone—hopes to compete with Amazon's Kindle e-reader device and e-book sales with their new iPad and iBooks software. The iPad will be able to display full-color e-books. According to Apple, e-books on the iPad will be able to play sound and video, and can contain links to the internet in text. iBooks will use the open e-book format EPub. The Kindle is able to display e-books in black and white and uses a proprietary format.
 
Apple also announced their involvement with several major publishers including Penguin, Harper Collins, Simon and Schuster, Macmillan, and Hachette. Random House is the only publisher among the "big six" that have not signed on to Apple's iBooks platform.
 
Publishers will have control over the pricing of their e-books on iBooks, with Apple taking a percentage off the sale. This model is different than Amazon's e-book sales in that publishers, not the distributor, set prices. All e-books on Amazon's e-book service are price-capped at $9.99.
 
The iPad will be available in the next few months, with variable pricing starting at $499.99. iBooks will release alongside the device.