Apple's new subscription policy could cost Amazon $80-$160 million per year

The button circled at right on Amazon's popular Kindle app for the iPhone will have to be removed if the company wants to continue doing business in Apple's App Store. That's because it takes customers out of the store to Amazon's website, where readers have been buying books for nearly two years. If Amazon doesn't decide to pull Kindle from the App Store -- a big if -- how much would the new rules cost it? Team Merrill has done some back-of-the-envelope calculations: "Our Kindle model assumes 2011 Kindle media sales of $1.6bn, up from $500mn in 2010. Assuming Amazon drives 5-10% of its Kindle media sales through the current Apple app link (a rough assumption at best), then approximately $80-160mn in sales could be negatively impacted by this policy."