It is commonly agreed that Apple holds the key to the e-publishing industry puzzle, less Random House, the only player in this tight game that has not aligned with Apple’s pricing systems. Yet, according to a Wall Street Journal article, the publishing house revised its position and soon will begin offering its digital books in the U.S. under the new pricing system, in a bid to broaden its e-book distribution. Random House was the last hold-out, meaning Apple now has the support of all major publishers. This situation is very similar to the process Apple and other companies went through to gain music and film industry partners. It is interesting to note the timing of Random House’s decision, which coincides with Apple’s launch of iPad2.

Any good news from Apple is welcomed as the company is facing a bit negative publicity, due to issues with Taiwanese partner Foxconn involving suicide and riots among employees, chemical poisoning issues in a Chinese factory that uses hexyl hydride for the mass production of touch screens for Apple products and the bad publicity generated by the 30% share requested by Apple by all means.

But in the online reading industry, each player is designing its own strategy in order to gain the most market share. Now that Apple has got the goods on ‘estranged’ Random House, Amazon ‘broadcasts’ its Kindle device through the AT&T store network, featuring over 2,200 selling points throughout the US. The Kindle device is now to be found by prospective customers right next to Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader and Sony’s e-reading device. Given Borders’ filling for bankruptcy situation, Barnes & Noble will need to come up with a coherent strategy in order to preserve their place in the industry.