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iBook store vs Kindle Store - Price and Availability

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Eric-PTEK

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 3, 2009
450
2
Since I've downloaded the Kindle app I find that more books are available on Kindle and cheaper too.

I went to go buy Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and Apple was high wanting $27.99 for it! Kindle was $9.99.

I also went to buy Anthem also by her and Kindle was $.99 and I didn't even think to check iBook but they had it...for free :)

We read a lot of the Brian Tracey books and all of them are on Kindle, none on iBook.

By allowing the Kindle app has Apple cut themselves off at the knee's with the iBook store?

App wise iBook is prettier but text on a page is text on a page.
 
The Apple bookstore is brand new, it's going to take some time to get the selection up there (Apple has 60,000 titles at launch vs. over 400,000 at Amazon). I suspect a year from now, it'll be a lot closer to Amazon's and the pricing is probably going to get more consistent too with the publishers all moving to the "agency" pricing model.
 
I think allowing the Kindle app was smart for Apple, and creating an iPad Kindle app was smart for Amazon. It lets both companies do what they're best at instead of competing outside their main areas of expertise. Personally, I think Apple should just work closer with Amazon or Barnes & Noble and drop iBook. Turn the chosen store's app into what iBook aspires to be and be done with it.
 
Is it just me, or does Apple seem to not want you to buy common sense (er... conservative) books like that one?
Some are just AWOL. :confused:

I bet you can find all kinds of enviro-nutjob books though. :D
 
Speaking of Anthem, every time Apple releases a new product like the iPad but doesn't use an article to describe it (i.e. "iPad" instead of "the iPad"), it reminds me of that book (you'll understand why when you read it if you haven' t already).
 
I want to go with the Apple iBook store but I see a BIG problem. I also want to have access to my books on my iPhone (for those times you are waiting and would like to do a little reading but don't have your iPad in your pocket) so Apple needs to make a reader/sync (doesn't have to be a full store) system.
 
I was not going to bring up the left leaning Apple....but Atlas Shrugged at 27.99 which is more than it is in hard cover! It is an amazing book though, 50-60 years ago and she is describing with amazing detail what is going on today.

I must be missing something...60K titles?

I just went through the iBook store, there hardly seem to be any books there at all.

Apple has failed at least IMO on making it easy to find books in the iBook store if there are truly 60K and secondly why in the world is there not an IPAD ONLY option in the App store??? I dont' want to look for a little plus symbol, I want to see iPad only apps if that is what I am browsing for.

BTW, Hannity's new book is in the iBook store, as is Karl Rove's, and the latest from Judge Napalitano(sp?) all of which I plan on reading after Atlas Shrugged and Anthem.
 
Eric-PTEK said:
I must be missing something...60K titles?

I just went through the iBook store, there hardly seem to be any books there at all.
Click to expand...

I don't know if it's the case but Apple struck a deal with Project Gutenberg to supply all their free books. The number of books was to be 30,000.

I guess that could explain something.
 
Eric-PTEK said:
I was not going to bring up the left leaning Apple....
Click to expand...

I was under the impression that publishers were excited about the iBook store because they were allowed far more flexibility with setting prices than with Amazon's store. That would mean it's the publisher's fault for having an outrageously overpriced book.
 
Scott-n-Houston said:
Is it just me, or does Apple seem to not want you to buy common sense (er... conservative) books like that one?
Some are just AWOL. :confused:

I bet you can find all kinds of enviro-nutjob books though. :D
Click to expand...

First Apple is a left leaning green advocating company. With that said their book store is new and from what i've read doesn't have all the contracts with publishers yet, in addition I just bought Sean Hannity's book conservative victory. In any case if I can't get it in iBook I'll get it in Kindle and if I feel the need I'll convert it to epub format and use it in iBook.
 
I'm buying my books through the kindle app...much cheaper and a larger selection.
 
It seems to me that Apple benefits from Kindle (for the moment) by filling the gap of ebooks that are unavailable from the IBook store. Amazon sorta benefits from getting its content on yet another platform, of course losing potential customers on the Kindle itself. Frenemies?
 
Olesven said:
It seems to me that Apple benefits from Kindle (for the moment) by filling the gap of ebooks that are unavailable from the IBook store. Amazon sorta benefits from getting its content on yet another platform, of course losing potential customers on the Kindle itself. Frenemies?
Click to expand...

I don't think Amazon was in it for the sales of the hardware but rather the recurring content selling.
 
hchavarria said:
I don't think Amazon was in it for the sales of the hardware but rather the recurring content selling.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I think Amazon needed to kickstart the ebook market and the only way to accomplish in that in 2007 was by creating their own device.
 
Kindle Magazines?

I am waiting for my 3G to arrive (the wait is killing me) and I have only tested an iPad for about 15 min so far, also I do not own a Kindle.

My question is this; I know you can get magazines like The Economist on the Kindle. I know that it can only be viewed in B&W on the Kindle because of the screen, but with the Kindle App on the iPad can it be viewed in color? In other words, are the magazines in the Kindle/Amazon store formatted in B&W or color? Does anyone know?
 
traveller09 said:
I am waiting for my 3G to arrive (the wait is killing me) and I have only tested an iPad for about 15 min so far, also I do not own a Kindle.

My question is this; I know you can get magazines like The Economist on the Kindle. I know that it can only be view in B&W on the Kindle because of the screen, but with the Kindle App on the iPad can it be viewed in color? In other words, are the magazines in the Kindle/Amazon store formatted in B&W or color? Does anyone know?
Click to expand...

I don't think the Kindle iPad app supports magazines. You'd have to use something like Zinio for that.
 
Is the Apple book store available if you don't have the ipad yet? I'd like to see the selection and pricing
 
Don DeLillo's new book was available from apple and I think still isn't on the bn.com ebook store. It's going to be a pain going through three different stores to find content.

Apple selling 250,000 books on day 1 should have amazon worried. Doesn't matter what pricing is, the average user is going to be buying books from ibooks just like they get music through iTunes. Pretty sure apple is on track to outsell the total kindle sales in it's first week out.
 
Why on earth are Ayn Rand's books $27.99 on iBooks?

When they're $9.99 on the Kindle app? How can there be that much of a discrepancy? Who sets the price? I assumed it was the publisher.
 
Seems so utterly fitting for Ayn Rand.



"God of money I'll do anything for you...god of money's not concerned about the sick among the pure--god of money let's go dancing on the backs of the bruised."
 
Riemann Zeta said:
Seems so utterly fitting for Ayn Rand.

"God of money I'll do anything for you...god of money's not concerned about the sick among the pure--god of money let's go dancing on the backs of the bruised."
Click to expand...

LOL

I was going to post the same thing. (well, minus the excellent NIN reference)
 
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