Actually, Apple contributed to rising e-book prices by, in effect, colluding with five out of six big publishers to push the "agency model" to all former retailers (including Amazon).

Before this, firms like Amazon would buy a stock of books (paper or electronic) from publishers, pay them about 50% of list price, and sell them at the price they set, often at loss. For example, for many NYT bestsellers the list price would be around $25, so the publisher would get $12 or $13, while Amazon would often sell for those magical $9.99.

Publishers (and some tame authors) complained this is "devaluing" the books. After reaching such agreement with Apple, they pushed the "agency model" on other retailers. After that model, books are sold by the publisher, at the price they set (same for all shops - out goes the competition), and the shop is just an agent, getting 30% commission. This was directed squarely against Amazon, where the end-user prices were typically 10-20% lower than at B&N, Sony or others.

It seems that big publishers are desperately clinging to the model where they earn the most during the first few days of sales of first edition hardcovers of their stars, and try to push the e-book genie back into the bottle.

Amazon has responded with changes to its direct to Kindle publishing program for indie authors and small publishers: for books that cost from $3 to $10 (there are some other conditions) the author's cut is now unprecedented 70%.