International iBookstore Offerings to Be Limited to Free Project Gutenberg Titles at Launch?

[arkitect]

And your other criteria for deciding whether or not to buy an iPad is if the wind were to change directions, then your decision would be no? You jest, right?

Oh, I'm sorry, did I hurt your feelings there?
My cash, my choices… right?

You're mocking his criteria for spending hundreds of dollars? Have Mac fanboys no shame?

Whoa, hold on there pal. Let's not confuse Macintosh fans with iFad lovers. One group was born of anti-establishment idealism, the other is willingly fascist.

Well said.

The iPad has free apps available for Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Knoble etc....

Thanks. Good to know.

It would seem to my that buying an iPad based only on the concept of being able to read books is a stupid reason to buy an iPad. Actually buying an iPad based only on ONE feature that it has is a poor decision. Buying an iPad is about everything it can do. I do agree with not buying one because it lacks on major feature though that is a primary feature that you were planning on using.

*sigh*
When did I say that? I like to read. Certainly far more than playing silly little games. So a wide choice is important to me.
And if you read the invisible ink in my post… it said:
anytime soon.

Don't worry iPad lovers, go sleep easy, I will get one. Some day… perhaps.

 

[bobob]

Apple faces in bringing their wares to a vast amount of different laws, economies, regs and customers.

+1

The publishing business and it's government regulations is a rat's nest of protectionist diversionary tactics.




{BTW: Is every thread in MacRumors News forums now full of paid anti-Apple surrogates?}

 

[ValSalva]

+1

The publishing business and it's government regulations is a rat's nest of protectionist diversionary tactics.

Very true. And that's why it would be highly disappointing if Apple, knowing this, has only two representatives negotiating this rat's nest for all of Europe. Again, presuming this rumor is true.

 

[skyehill]

It would seem to my that buying an iPad based only on the concept of being able to read books is a stupid reason to buy an iPad. Actually buying an iPad based only on ONE feature that it has is a poor decision. Buying an iPad is about everything it can do. I do agree with not buying one because it lacks on major feature though that is a primary feature that you were planning on using.

But not buying something because it doesn't do the one major thing you wanted it for well is a pretty damn good reason not to buy something. Buying it otherwise would be stupid.

 

[WilliamLondon]

You're mocking his criteria for spending hundreds of dollars? Have Mac fanboys no shame?

Thanks for the no-so-subtle slam - you attack me for what you *claim* I have done, that is called hypocrisy. And then you label me a fanboy - btw, you misspelled it. Did you not get the memo? Or did it only get sent via the official released version of Flash running on an Android handset? It's spelled, fanboi.

Yes, I did mock his criteria because it's silly. If he was serious (and I've no idea whether he was), to say you would not buy this device ("no way ever") because one of the bookstores (there are others on this device, btw) hasn't signed deals yet across Europe so *at launch* it has limited books available in the store.

If that's the criteria for making a decision *forever* then I laugh at his criteria (sorry, I'm assuming it was a male) because it's short sighted and the device is about *much* more than books. HOWEVER, I assume the criteria stated (if serious) wasn't the true criteria and was merely an opportunity to slam the iPad.

Now who's the fanboi?

Whoa, hold on there pal. Let's not confuse Macintosh fans with iFad lovers. One group was born of anti-establishment idealism, the other is willingly fascist.

Which is which? I want to make sure I'm acting appropriately. And is there a secret handshake? BTW, where do I pick up my new iDevice?

 

[PipPip]

That is there, I found it in the charts.

This opens the door for the kindle app to get traction, I can actually buy books in there.

A big Thank You Now downloading, one happy daughter

 

[cRuNcHiE]

Is this basically saying there are no paid for books in the store?

I can see loads, e.g beatles

 

[healeydave]

After all the good news with iPads selling millions, Apples Market Cap etc, proving the naysayers wrong, still the children try to climb on every thread to throw mud, when will they realise that mud ain't sticking

What ever these guy's think, its a shame they're not bright enough to keep it to themselves because Apple will continue to make them look like idiots!

Anyway, I did actually want to ask an ON-TOPIC question;

I understand the principles of video type media being country specific (even though It seems stupid in this day and age), but why the hell do we need multiple book stores?
Why can't all the publishers Apple has already done deals with be in one book store for all countries with only language differences!?!!?!

 

[JAT]

Agreed. 2 people in charge of getting deals with publishers from 6 entire countries (if not more)? And the launch is tomorrow? That's insane. Apple is apparently not serious at all about getting new books into its European iBookstore. The Gutenberg project is cool, but a lot of people want to read recent books that aren't in the public domain yet.

If that's how Apple treats the launch of a key aspect of the iPad, a major new product making headlines worldwide, we can only image what sort of effort they put into their "hobby" of TV...Hopefully they will get their act together and get European publishers on board sooner rather than later.

I'm trying to figure out if this post means you worship Apple, so are truly shocked they haven't forced completely unrelated parties into a business deal yet....or that you hate Apple, and simply blame them 100% for not yet being able to make a business deal with one of the most obnoxious industries in the world, in the EU where they are not trusted.

 

[MikhailT]

Who knows really why except Apple (and they're not talking)... As far as your critique goes, you know zero of the dynamics that Apple faces in bringing their wares to a vast amount of different laws, economies, regs and customers. The challenge is immense and people should cut Apple some slack, especially when they don't have any facts (just conjecture on a rumors site).

What Apple has accomplished in a single decade is nothing short of a miracle and matched by no other company.

+1

The publishing business and it's government regulations is a rat's nest of protectionist diversionary tactics.




{BTW: Is every thread in MacRumors News forums now full of paid anti-Apple surrogates?}

You two need to read the part he quoted.

You two are talking about how complicated it is to do this in Europe and yet Apple as a world class company only assigned TWO reps to this project? That's the problem he was having if it is true.

I'm trying to figure out if this post means you worship Apple, so are truly shocked they haven't forced completely unrelated parties into a business deal yet....or that you hate Apple, and simply blame them 100% for not yet being able to make a business deal with one of the most obnoxious industries in the world, in the EU where they are not trusted.

It means neither. Did you miss the part about Apple only having TWO people in charge of this? Apple isn't really serious if they only assigned two people to this, which either suggest this report is incorrect and actually meant two managers or directors with dozens of more employers under each or something like that or if this report is accurate, either Apple has a serious resource management issue or they just don't care about it.

 

[WilliamLondon]

Oh, I'm sorry, did I hurt your feelings there?
My cash, my choices… right?

No, but now you're being offensive.

BTW, the Barnes & Noble bookstore app is announced on the front page of MacRumors (here), so it was logical to assume you had seen that, along with Amazon's Kindle application (some time ago) being announced.

Your post *strongly implied in perfect ways* that this little hiccup in signing book deals across Europe was the one criteria that would halt your buying an iPad forever. You play with words and back off "anytime soon" but the implication is "never" when you say, "not anytime soon."

I actually thought you were joking. Now that I know you aren't, I stick by my other post in this thread when I suggested that someone with that single criteria isn't actually basing their decision on that criteria, but found a perfect opportunity to slam the product, and anyone who supports it, "iPad lovers" as you refer to them.

 

[observer]

A big Thank You Now downloading, one happy daughter

It's truly a wondrous store, where you can download a happy daughter. Almost as good as a Chinese restaurant where you can buy a Happy Family.

 

[WvB22]

Well to be honest I'm not impressed too. Apple presents iBooks as a major selling point to potential iPad buyers. Besides that, Apple had quite some extra time to close some deals with major international publishers. Alsi it is well know that Apple neglected a lot of countries for a long time on the iTunes stores too. In the Netherlands, my own country, for example there has never been any movie or television series for sale. Of course there could be legal issues but I'm pretty sure if Apple really tried the deals would have been made a long time ago. Apple should really hire some extra people to get some more localized content in their stores.

 

[sconnor99]

Who cares? Kindle app works very well and you can buy all the books you want on there.

 

[autrefois]

I'm trying to figure out if this post means you worship Apple, so are truly shocked they haven't forced completely unrelated parties into a business deal yet....or that you hate Apple, and simply blame them 100% for not yet being able to make a business deal with one of the most obnoxious industries in the world, in the EU where they are not trusted.

I'm sorry I don't fit into your two very narrow categories. I love Apple products and have had various Mac computers since 1998, have an iPod and an iPhone, but disagree with some of their business and PR decisions.

I don't think Apple should "force" anyone into a deal, and I also don't think that in itself, the fact that they don't have a major deal would be their fault. But if confirmed, the fact that a multi-billion dollar corporation (who has surpassed Microsoft in market capitalization in the US) only has 2 people dealing with what you deem "one of the most obnoxious industries in the world" show they either aren't serious about entering this market or have vastly underestimated the effort needed.

The original post has been updated to say that some paid titles have started appear in the UK store at least, so it's possible they have been able to make some deals. We'll have to see how it pans out.

 

[yetanotherdave]

Paid books are appearing in the uk store. Just Harper Collins and penguin that I've seen so far.

 

[healeydave]

Just checked the UK store, more paid stuff is now turning up (at last).


Google & Adobe will be pleased to know that No.3 on the Top Charts page is currently showing George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty Four" on my iPad

 

[elbows]

Books by Douglas Adams are there, which is a fine start.

 

[notjustjay]

Is this basically saying there are no paid for books in the store?

I can see loads, e.g beatles

Just until tomorrow, when everything launches.

What it's saying is that "nobody knows" who all is going to have books in the store. Could be nobody, could be everybody. We'll find out tomorrow.

 

[smiddlehurst]

Just checked the UK store, more paid stuff is now turning up (at last).

Uh, to be fair here, the launch day is tomorrow, not today, so why would titles be available yet? Only reason some got their iPads today was otherwise there's no way UPS & TNT could handle the volume. Not sure why this rumor (which now seems to be utterly wrong) was given much credibility in the first place. Now if it was the 28th and there was nothing but Guttenberg books available I'd understand it...

 

[J R R]

I think even the more well established online book stores, like Amazon's Kindle store, are very much a work in progress. The Kindle store, which I use for iPhone and Kindle already, has a few hundred thousand books listed. But many of these are classics with sometimes 10 identical titles from different sources. So many less than that in reality.

Also, for a still fairly US centric bookstore, it is missing a lot of very important US literature. On The Road is not there, although more recent Kerouac is. Also only about half of Auster's work is there. Just examples. Sci-fi, only selected Wiliam Gibson or Iain Banks. Again, just the more recent titles.

if you want translations of quite popular Japanese or European authors (say Murakami or Kundera) you will be unfulfilled - in two senses if you see what I mean.

Bestsellers are better, but the ebooks still seem to be timed to the paperback release - so six to eight months 'late' if you wanted it on release.

I think it will take some time for the various ebookstores to grow to maturiity.

On the plus side, Amazon.com has some three million titles listed. I'm sure it can't physically supply all of these. But if it were an ebookstore it could - once you have the data loaded that is it forever.

 

[JGowan]

Spoken like a true Apple apologist. A tiny bit of transparency by Apple would go a very long way.

I'm not apologizing for anybody, but I get pretty sick of everyone these days holding Apple to higher standard than anyone else (by a mile)... everyone loves to try and kick the king off the mountain. Basically, (I'll say it again, since apparently you can't read), we have a a hub-bub based on nothing buy pure conjecture. There's no facts here. Unbunch your panties, ValSalva.

I'm no fan but Google's accomplishments in the past decade exceed Apple's. Google didn't even exist twelve years ago.

Holy crap... what a load of horse_____t! How can you sit there and type that with a straight face! OMG! What an asinine statement.

... and yet Apple as a world class company only assigned TWO reps to this project? That's the problem he was having if it is true.

It means neither. Did you miss the part about Apple only having TWO people in charge of this?

Did you miss the part about you not really knowing if TWO is really the fact -- this is based (I'll say again [third time now]) on speculation.

It goes like this. Someone could claim that Steve Ballmer is going to speak at WWDC, but that doesn't make it so. Oh WAIT... someone DID claim THAT and it's NOT going to happen.

------

See what I did there?

 

[ChrisColon]

The german iBookstore has quite a few non-gutenberg books in it. Sergej Lukianenko, Christopher Paolini, Ken Follet, etc.

They went live around midnight yesterday. The prices are actually quite good, a lot of books for under €7 in there, though most of the newer titles seem to sell for ~€12.

 

[nelmat]

///

"Apple has reached UK iBook distribution deals with publishers Hachette UK, Penguin, HarperCollins and Pan Macmillan. Titles from all four publishers were made available on the morning of the iPad launch, May 28.

The four represent five of the original global publishers who signed with Apple before its US launch in April, with only Simon & Schuster missing."

///

Maybe before criticising something that isn't fact, it might be worth waiting until launch day to see what is launched. I've never heard of Simon & Schuster, but between the free boooks and the publishers listed above, that's a pretty big majority of what's available in the UK. Very impressed so much is available on the day of launch.

Well done Apple.

 

[MrDouglas]

Book cover proportions?

Hi there,

Is there anyone who knows what book cover proportions the iBook covers has? Here in Sweden we only have the books from Project Gutenberg, and as you all know the cover art is not that awsome for those books...