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Originally Posted by HarryT
That's not entirely true, Elfwreck. You can use iBooks on an iPod Touch, which certainly doesn't cost $500.
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Sorry, and thanks for the correction. I knew that when the iBookstore opened, it was iPad only; hadn't realized they'd expanded it to other iThings. (Is it accessible by PCs, or only on mobile iThings?)
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I completely agree with the thrust of your argument, however, which is that Apple are shooting themselves in the foot by making the iBooks environment so "closed". That's why I read on my iPad - but with the Kindle App.
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It's interesting watching Apple repeat the same mistakes that made first several waves of ebook readers flounder. The whole "we will sell devices which are tied to our ebook store, so our customers will buy books only from us, and read only books they've bought from us..." we've got over ten years' worth of attempts to pull that off, and none of them have worked.
To be fair, "we will make an ebook reader so anyone can read books on it, and not tie it to a store!" has also not been overwhelmingly successful, but it hasn't failed as badly as the attempted lock-in devices. Access to the DRM usable by most of the stores has made it at least a feasible business plan.