Why isn't there an iBooks app for OS X?

[daneoni]

Kindle has one for pretty much everything. Why do i have to read iBooks from an iDevice and not a Mac itself?

 

[PlaceofDis]

this is baffling to me as well. Apple need to work on this and get it done asap if you ask me.

 

[thatoneguy82]

I wish there was an iBooks app for the Kindle device as well. You can read books purchased from Amazon across all devices but for you're limited with iBooks. This limits me from purchasing anything from there. Even if I want to since I have a GC balance. I prefer to do extended reading on my Kindle since the iPhone4S/iPad2 bothers my eyes.

 

[thewitt]

Though we are likely to see iBooks on the Mac at some point, it's never going to show up on the Kindle. Apple is a hardware company that also sells software and content. They will not put their software on someone else's hardware.

 

[Barbie]

Though we are likely to see iBooks on the Mac at some point, it's never going to show up on the Kindle. Apple is a hardware company that also sells software and content. They will not put their software on someone else's hardware.

iTunes and Safari?

 

[thewitt]

iTunes was required to sell hardware. The iPod, iPhone and iPad all required iTunes in order to function, so iTunes on Windows was not something they could avoid.

There is no such motivation with iBooks.

I have no idea why they decided to support Safari on Windows, however some of the early analysts back in 2007 speculated it was to give PC users a taste of the Apple world before the release of the iPhone, so they would not balk at having to download Apple software - iTunes - in order to initialize and use their iPhones.

They were targeting "switchers" with a teaser about the previously unknown Apple world.

Others stated it was in support of Apple's foray into the web software market - which they basically abandoned, leaving only iWork.com behind.

 

[ghall]

It would be nice to have iBooks on the Mac, but Apple would probably just build the functionality into iTunes, and honestly that's the last thing iTunes needs; another thing to bog it down. I don't want to sound too negative, but I think it's just as likely as being able to run iOS apps on the Mac, as neither would really work well on a desktop or even a laptop computer.

 

[*LTD*]

I've wondered about this too, but I think it's the way Apple conceptualized the reading experience. The most tactile and intimate form, to them, are iDevices. This doesn't mean there shouldn't be a version for OS X, but I do see their point.

 

[turtle777]

I guess Apple feels a Mac is not the right device to read books.
And if Apple decides this, it must be true.

I think iBooks for OS X is needed.
If not for reading books, but for looking at annoations and comments made while reading books on an iOS device.
E.g. image you're reading papers and books for a research paper, and want later cpy & paste your notes and some text passges into your paper. SOL as it stands right now.

-t