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Originally Posted by calvin-c
Absolutely incorrect here. Amazon can control prices (of ebooks) only by making them lower. Most ebooks are available from multiple sources-if Amazon makes the prices of those books higher then intelligent buyers will simply buy from another source. In terms of ebooks the cost of entering the market is minimal so even the fear that Amazon will lower prices until all their competition goes out of business and then raise them isn't realistic. Yes, they might do so-but they'd need to lower them again since raising them would cause new competitors to spring up.
Unless Amazon has contracts requiring they be the exclusive seller of books. If they start doing that then they could corner the market but AFAIK they don't. (Another caveat might be if Amazon were to cut their own throat by making Kindles incapable of displaying ebooks without DRM. That might lock people into Amazon but I seriously, seriously, doubt that will happen.)
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A couple of points, if I may.
Amazon has Most Favored Nation clause in their contracts so they have some control in ebook prices. However, they have more control with their royalty rates. If they decide to raise or lower the 70% or the $2.99 level you will see major price movements by authors and publishers.
People with Kindles (ereaders) are most likely to buy from Amazon. If the book is DRM'd then even more so.
Amazon is the exclusive seller of books sold through their KDP select currently numbering over 450,000.