Apple's iBooks App Now Available

[HLdan]

so fed up with seeing US only releases....

Maybe you should be living in the U.S, then you'll see how horribly we are treated. Every country outside the U.S gets new electronics, especially exclusive products long before the U.S. is even considered. Now a U.S company (Apple) wants to take care of customers in their own country first and now people outside the U.S are crying? Let it go, you'll get it eventually.

 

[gnasher729]

I've been wondering for years just how much money these companies lose on people who would like to pay but don't have the option. Hopefully the publishers are more competent.

The problem is not the author, who would gladly sell you the book no matter where you live, the problem is that publisher A paid the author money for the right to sell the book in the USA, publisher B paid for the right to sell the same book in the UK, and so on. I fully agree that the situation is not satisfying.

(The situation could be even that there is the same publisher, but US manager X gets a bonus if lots of books are sold in the US, and UK manager Y gets a bonus if lots of books are sold in the UK, so manager Y really doesn't want UK residents to buy the US books and vice versa, even though it doesn't make a financial difference to the publisher).

 

[Corbin052198]

You're right - looks like it's just Books on my iTunes, and the Audiobooks tag is all gone.

I'd probably prefer they split it to have audio and written books as I'd like to skim through both types of books depending on what I'm doing and whether I'm stationary or mobile.

I took a screenshot of mine, and it's still Audiobooks. I'm running iTunes 9.0.1 on Mac OS X 10.4.11. Any clue why mine is different? Is it just iTunes 9.1 and above??

 

[jacksongan]

u guys in america r so lucky, here in singapore there is no news about the ipad at all, the only thing we can do is to sign up for the newsletter from apple.

I saw the ibooks app on the itunes, cant wait to get my own ipad!

 

[JeffDM]

The problem is not the author, who would gladly sell you the book no matter where you live, the problem is that publisher A paid the author money for the right to sell the book in the USA, publisher B paid for the right to sell the same book in the UK, and so on. I fully agree that the situation is not satisfying.

(The situation could be even that there is the same publisher, but US manager X gets a bonus if lots of books are sold in the US, and UK manager Y gets a bonus if lots of books are sold in the UK, so manager Y really doesn't want UK residents to buy the US books and vice versa, even though it doesn't make a financial difference to the publisher).

Yep, I think a lot of times both publishers are owned by the same holding company, but each division is pretty competitive, they want the credit for sales within their own territory, which is understandable, but in the long run, it's an unsustainable business model.

Breaking up the distribution rights by country made perfect sense in the physical book realm, but not so much on the internet. Old habits die hard and media companies don't see this, and they don't seem to be making changes in the business model for new products where distribution rights could be done differently.

 

[E.Lizardo]

Maybe you should be living in the U.S, then you'll see how horribly we are treated. Every country outside the U.S gets new electronics, especially exclusive products long before the U.S. is even considered. Now a U.S company (Apple) wants to take care of customers in their own country first and now people outside the U.S are crying? Let it go, you'll get it eventually.

True,and the same with imported cars!
"It's available in Japan now,coming to the US in 2 years"

 

[Becordial]

I took a screenshot of mine, and it's still Audiobooks. I'm running iTunes 9.0.1 on Mac OS X 10.4.11. Any clue why mine is different? Is it just iTunes 9.1 and above??

Mine's on 9.1 so I think that's the main explanation, though others have said it changes over in iTunes on April 3. I don't think that part of iTunes is dynamic and remotely updated (surely not) so I assume if you update it to 9.1, the new Books will appear. (Not that much useful though yet, so no rush!)

Another thing noticeable from your capture to mine that's changed slightly is that Apple have changed the tag from 'Applications' to just 'Apps'.

 

[E.Lizardo]

The problem is not the author, who would gladly sell you the book no matter where you live, the problem is that publisher A paid the author money for the right to sell the book in the USA, publisher B paid for the right to sell the same book in the UK, and so on. I fully agree that the situation is not satisfying.

(The situation could be even that there is the same publisher, but US manager X gets a bonus if lots of books are sold in the US, and UK manager Y gets a bonus if lots of books are sold in the UK, so manager Y really doesn't want UK residents to buy the US books and vice versa, even though it doesn't make a financial difference to the publisher).

Yes,just last month I wanted a book that was Canada only.Emailed the author,who said they were looking for a US publisher.He graciously offered to send me one.I took him up on it,and he even signed it.No telling when it will be "officially"for sale here!

 

[ten-oak-druid]

So if you do not own an ipad, will the ibookstore be of any use? Can you purchase books to read on your computer through this store? Or is it ipad only?

I've looked around and all I find are references to the app. But this is to be run on the ipad, not on the computer.

 

[fleshman03]

Kind of disappointing that you can't read your eBooks/iBooks/whatever directly on iTunes.

Or on the iPhone...

 

[wingnut8]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3GS: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

Couldn't the people living outside the US just get an IPA of the app and drag it into iTunes?

 

[CylonGlitch]

So if you do not own an ipad, will the ibookstore be of any use? Can you purchase books to read on your computer through this store? Or is it ipad only?

I've looked around and all I find are references to the app. But this is to be run on the ipad, not on the computer.

If you don't have an iPad, don't bother.. right now it is iPad only.

 

[mdatwood]

It's not so much that you read the whole novel as you get a little reading in when using a larger device is impossible or inconvenient. Say you forget your iPad or Kindle (but who leaves home without their phone?). Or standing in a grocery line. If you're an avid reader immersed in particularly good novel, it's a nice convenience.

Or waiting for a to-go order or any other time that you have a few minutes and having nothing else to do. I read on my iPhone all the time in these situations.

I have friends who buy Kindle books and read them cover to cover on their Iphones. They don't own Kindles, just the books. They're perfectly happy with the experience and don't want to spend the money on a Kindle.

The last 20 books I have read have been cover to cover on the iPhone using Stanza. I actually like the smaller page format because it's easier to get to stopping points. With as many options as Stanza has for text font/color/size/etc... most people should be able to get to something that is comfortable to read.

 

[rwilliams]

Mr. Jobs,
Thank you for releasing iBooks for the iPad. Sounds like an awe inspiring application. I was hoping that there might be an iPhone/iPod Touch version in the works. I ask this because it seems to augment the business plan quite well. Get the millions of people out there with these devices already used to digital reading and buying books through iTunes; and then when the time comes for a more enriching experience, buying an iPad for home use. Many people are like myself, on the go, especially with kids, who find they have 1/2 hour to and hour of free time while out and about. Instead of having to lug another device (iPad) around for this use, we could just pull out our phones and read a little; but at home, we would want to use our iPads.

Please, is there any chance that the iBooks application will be released for the iPhone / iPod touch.

Thank you!

Buy an iPad.

Steve

Sent from my iPhone

 

[steffi]

Just refreshed the store and it's up for DL.

Will it recognise PDFs?

 

[iomar]

Does it work with the iphone too?

 

[Friscohoya]

Don't know why it's locked to ipad? Even if experience is crippled on smaller screen or non touch environment they would sell more books. Isn't that the goal?

 

[CylonGlitch]

Does it work with the iphone too?

How about READING this thread? Don't have to read the whole thing, how about just reading this PAGE of the thread? How about reading the LAST FOUR POSTS?

(sorry for being grumpy but the release of iBooks has made me grumpy)

 

[DCBass]

Its not myopic; in fact I'm sure its quite deliberate. It astounds me that so many people on this forum really don't understand what Apple is all about.

Reading on the iPhone/iPod touch for any meaningful length of time is a **** user experience. Most people don't want to read on such a small screen. Nobody cares that you, or a few other people do. Apple will not release something that they think sucks.

I would have to agree with you Luke about the focus on the user experience being a judge of how to consume content. Apps on the iPhone vs iPad vs Mac are all distinct from one another for a reason.

However, when it comes to media consumption, Apple has historically made all forms accessible on all platforms... from the Mac to the iPhone, the iPad, and even the earliest iPod. Even the Apple TV!

Books are understandably different from movies and music, but for platforms that are largely dominated by the consumption of text (e.g., the desktop and the smartphone), it seems unimaginable that iBooks won't make it to these platforms at least eventually.

At the same time, following your point, I've noticed that no one has been disappointed in the lack of accessing iBooks on the Apple TV.

Natch.

DCBass

 

[GermanSuplex]

Buy an iPad.

Steve

Sent from my iPhone

Ahhaaha, touche.

 

[FunkyJunk]

Will it recognise PDFs?

No, just ePub. There are free tools out there to convert your PDFs to ePub format, though.

 

[Xibalba]

Maybe you should be living in the U.S, then you'll see how horribly we are treated. Every country outside the U.S gets new electronics, especially exclusive products long before the U.S. is even considered. Now a U.S company (Apple) wants to take care of customers in their own country first and now people outside the U.S are crying? Let it go, you'll get it eventually.

EXACTLY!

All international companies still take care of their local business first - it amazes me how people "just don't get it" - such a simple concept...

 

[digitalaviator]

Its not myopic; in fact I'm sure its quite deliberate. It astounds me that so many people on this forum really don't understand what Apple is all about.

Reading on the iPhone/iPod touch for any meaningful length of time is a **** user experience. Most people don't want to read on such a small screen. Nobody cares that you, or a few other people do. Apple will not release something that they think sucks.

That's your opinion and shouting your opinion doesn't make it a fact...

It's obvious you don't read nor do you work internationally on long distance flights or commute regularly where you'd never be carrying around an iPad...

The kindle for iphone is ok but doesn't have any of the functionality of the ibooks app and regardless of your opinion and fallacious statements the app would work perfectly well on an iphone and it's screen real estate...

Further to that, amazon has very few books from publishers that I would want to read, and I'm not going to spend $500+ on an iPad just to read books... I'm doing humanitarian work in the 3rd world and you know what would happen if I carried an iPad around? I'd be KILLED for it!!! I'm not going to risk my life for something that is worth a years worth of rent or house payments for someone.

For crying out loud we're used to small web pages on the iphone, we're used to small text, don't try and tell me only a handful of people want it, it doesn't wash with me at all...

 

[ten-oak-druid]

I would say if you are not in the market for an ipad right away, ereader or kindle software for Mac is the way to go. You can read the books on the computer. And if you do get an ipad, both kindle and ereader will have apps for the ipad. With ibooks you can only use the ipad. And on the ipad, a book is a book. Probably doesn't matter which app you are using to view it. Although having everything tied together with itunes to sync is handy.

 

[digitalaviator]

Don't look now but I think the iPad has interrupted the space time continuum...