Not really. Apple was going in the other direction with music. They would make a list of demands to each music publisher like requiring them to offer music on a per-track basis with $0.99 being the standard price. The music publishers were balking at offering their music at such low prices while also giving Apple a cut.

In this ebook deal, Apple was negotiating the prices up with multiple parties so that they could get their cut and the publishers would still make the same or more than they did from Amazon.

The difference is, if you are in negotiations with multiple publishers (read: conspiring) to raise prices, that's bad for consumers. As an analogy, imagine if Exxon, Shell, BP, Total, et al. somehow colluded to sell gas for 50 cents more per gallon. If all the major oil companies did it, none of them would lose very much business.

The only part I'm missing is how this is as bad as my analogy, because consumers could still choose to buy from Amazon. There are even Kindle apps for almost every device including iOS devices.

Maybe someone can enlighten me on that part.