Apple Prepping Tablet for E-Books

According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple has been in negotiations with book publishers regarding its rumored tablet device. Specifically, Apple has been discussing pricing models, which could affect e-books industry-wide. After all, Apple set the standard price for a single song download at 99 cents and the rest of the industry was required to follow in their footsteps or risk consumer pushback.

Apple is expected to announce their tablet device today during a press conference at 10am PST (1pm EST). Several sites will be live-blogging the event, including MacLife. Some folks expect this decide to be a “Kindle Killer,” but as a longtime Kindle user I can say that a non-e-ink screen instantly makes a device less useful for reading. There is no question, however, that a tablet device from Apple will be popular. While the device itself may not hurt the Kindle or Amazon’s e-book sales, Apple has the influential power to affect e-book pricing and standards industry-wide.

We’ll have more information about the tablet this afternoon, presuming Apple announces it at this press release and isn’t announcing the latest version of iTunes like they did with their last “big” press conference.