Quote:
Originally Posted by bill_mchale
I am not sure Apple wants to risk the stink that would arise at this point if they turned off the 300,000+ Stanza readers and the 250,000+ eReader readers. I know they reserve the right to remove apps from people's devices, but if they were to do that, and then release Mobi... well, that would probably alienate quite a few customers (yours truly included.. I would dump my iPod Touch and replace it with a palm PDA tomorrow).
I think it would be even harder for them to justify with bookZ and bookshelf, both of which are not free (though not that pricey).
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I imagine that if Apple saw a profitable market in selling ebooks they would just integrate the sales directly into iTunes. This would make it more convenient to load books onto the device and make their store more attractive than eReader or other competitors. Fairly quickly they would dominate the ebooks on iPhone market and their competitors would fade away.
Apple cares about what is good for Apple. Fortunately this often overlaps with what is perceived as good by their customers. I don't think it is likely to happen, but I guess that becoming a mobipocket storefront wouldn't necessarily be a bad deal for Apple. They would have a large library instantly and make money on the partnership without any of the work securing licenses, dealing with publishers, etc.