Under the agency model, publishers set the price for e-book titles with 30 percent of the cost going to the retailer. Sound familiar? That's the same cut Apple takes of music and apps via its iTunes and App Stores. So, it was perhaps not a surprise that Apple's , also operates under the agency model. Previously, publishers sold titles to retailers for a wholesale price, with the retailers adding a markup of their own.

Shortly before the iPad appeared, Amazon for many titles, giving 70 percent of the revenue to the publisher (which had previously only received 30 percent). Some of the additional stipulations in that deal , though .

At the time of the iBookstore launch, five of the six major English-language publishers had signed on with Apple, . That may change with Monday's news, though a Random House spokesman told that the announcement does not confirm availability of the publisher's e-book titles in the iBookstore. Random House's statement does, however, allude to "the opportunity to forge new retail relationships." And, with , we may be seeing those titles sooner rather than later.