Apple could replace Orange fiction prize backing

Apple are in advanced talks to replace Orange as the sponsor of the annual women’s fiction prize, according to a report.

Apple

A marketing arrangement to promote the prize via it’s iBookstore to help the US technology giant challenge Amazon’s dominance of online book retailing is being discussed, according to Apple sources quoted by the Sunday Telegraph.

However, the sources would not say whether a deal to replace Orange, so the award’s name would become the Apple Prize for Fiction is on the table.

The iPad to iTunes manufacturer has not looked to sponsorship to promote its brand in the past, preferring a straight PR and above the line advertising strategy.

It has made its ambitions for the iPad ereader clear, declaring last year when defending itself against colluding with publishers to fix the price of ebooks that it wanted to break Amazon/Kindle’s ‘Monopolistic grip’.

The women’s fiction prize has been searching for a new sponsor since Orange announced in May it was withdrawing its sponsorship that had supported the prize since launch in 1996, to focus on film.

A spokesman for the prize said she was ‘unable to comment’ on the status of ‘on-going conversations’ but could ‘confirm that positive discussions are taking place with a number of interested parties.’ Apple did not reply to a request for comment before this article was published.

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