Kobo / Apple purchasing changes

[stonetools]

First of all neither Kobo or any of the other booksellers have the moral high ground on this. You can ONLY buy from the Kobo Bookstore on the Kobo reader in the ordinary course. You can ONLY buy from Google Books on the Ireader. Faced with such exclusivity, Apple's limitations are mild.

My viewpoint is, I bought a product with certain expectations. Apple has now changed those expectations. Apple made a choice to make their product less user friendly for their customers in order to increase what I would assume are already healthy profit margins.

Did you really buy your Ipad with the expectations that your methods of accessing the non-Apple book stores would remain EXACTLY the same? Thought not.

Apple's change in policy has little to do with e-bookstores and a LOT to do with its new features (Newsstand, Icloud, video streaming services) that it plans to introduce in Ios5 come the fall . As such , Apple would not be "backing down" on this as this policy change is part of a much bigger initiative by Apple.

[fbrII]

Did you really buy your Ipad with the expectations that your methods of accessing the non-Apple book stores would remain EXACTLY the same? Thought not.

Are you putting words in my mouth? Thought so.

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by fbrII

Are you putting words in my mouth? Thought so.

I was responding to another poster,(indeed, I quoted that poster) so, no, I wasn't putting words in your mouth. I recommend more careful reading in the future. tia

[Donnageddon]

I have never purchased a book on my iPad, or iPod Touch. I purchase on my netbook, and side-load or sync.

This does not effect me in any way.

[CleverClothe]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

But we didn't know how Kobo would react. Now we do.

Did anyone really think that Kobo would do anything else? Their choice was to shoot themselves in the head, or remove direct app sales/links. Seems like a pretty easy choice to make.

[Ron.]

Originally Posted by stonetools

First of all neither Kobo or any of the other booksellers have the moral high ground on this. You can ONLY buy from the Kobo Bookstore on the Kobo reader in the ordinary course. You can ONLY buy from Google Books on the Ireader. Faced with such exclusivity, Apple's limitations are mild.




Did you really buy your Ipad with the expectations that your methods of accessing the non-Apple book stores would remain EXACTLY the same? Thought not.

Apple's change in policy has little to do with e-bookstores and a LOT to do with its new features (Newsstand, Icloud, video streaming services) that it plans to introduce in Ios5 come the fall . As such , Apple would not be "backing down" on this as this policy change is part of a much bigger initiative by Apple.

I don't think comparing a kobo reader or kindle etc to a iPad is a fair comparison. They are ebook readers and it is all they are, they do not run apps. A better comparison would be comparing a kobo to a iPod, both dedicated devices that do one thing and neither run third party apps. A iPad is more in line with a Laptop or netbook, both run third party apps, how far do you think microsoft would get if it demanded 30% of all in app purchases, 30% of all music bought from within iTunes running on windows ? everyone would be screaming and the lawyers would be lining up. Yet it's exactly what apple has done.

EDIT: I was referring to like an iPod nano etc..

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by CleverClothe

Did anyone really think that Kobo would do anything else? Their choice was to shoot themselves in the head, or remove direct app sales/links. Seems like a pretty easy choice to make.

Doesn't matter. We still didn't know what they'd actually do until now.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Ron.

I don't think comparing a kobo reader or kindle etc to a iPad is a fair comparison. They are ebook readers and it is all they are, they do not run apps.

a) A kindle does run apps
b) The only place to get the apps is from Amazon
c) Amazon does take a cut of every app sold

(But Amazon and B&N (for the Nook Color) do not allow competing ebook apps on their devices. Apple do)

[stonetools]

Originally Posted by Ron.

I don't think comparing a kobo reader or kindle etc to a iPad is a fair comparison. They are ebook readers and it is all they are, they do not run apps. A better comparison would be comparing a kobo to a iPod, both dedicated devices that do one thing and neither run third party apps. A iPad is more in line with a Laptop or netbook, both run third party apps, how far do you think microsoft would get if it demanded 30% of all in app purchases, 30% of all music bought from within iTunes running on windows ? everyone would be screaming and the lawyers would be lining up. Yet it's exactly what apple has done.

Well, according to the techie gurus, an Ipad is just a big Ipod touch and an Ipod touch is well, an Ipod..
The Ios platform developed out of the original Ipod, with the line being:

Ipod-Iphone-Ipod Touch-Ipad.

The Ios platform, like the Android platform , is really something between a game console and a computer operating system, so you can't quite compare them . I might add both the original Kindles and Nooks run third party apps, so there isn't really a hard line between the Ios and ereader OSes.

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by Giggleton

hmm, well Amazon allows for third party reading apps in their App store. Apple seems to be a bit short sighted in this respect since essentially all apps are simply an interface to the network, in the near future all reading will be done through a browser.

It feels like protectionism which is adverse to pure capitalism which is what we are striving to achieve yes?

Let us wait and see what Amazon provides with their tablet, if it is simply a slightly more functional nook, which would need to be unlocked to make it more useable...

But if the Amazon tablet is in fact going to be an open computing platform, which will allow for the creation of an infinite amount of bookstores...

On the other hand, if Amazon expands their affiliate marketing, turning every tablet user into an affiliate...

I very much doubt a browswer for reading will happen. Its in efficient and too cumbersome.

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by stonetools

First of all neither Kobo or any of the other booksellers have the moral high ground on this. You can ONLY buy from the Kobo Bookstore on the Kobo reader in the ordinary course. You can ONLY buy from Google Books on the Ireader. Faced with such exclusivity, Apple's limitations are mild.




Did you really buy your Ipad with the expectations that your methods of accessing the non-Apple book stores would remain EXACTLY the same? Thought not.

Apple's change in policy has little to do with e-bookstores and a LOT to do with its new features (Newsstand, Icloud, video streaming services) that it plans to introduce in Ios5 come the fall . As such , Apple would not be "backing down" on this as this policy change is part of a much bigger initiative by Apple.

ACtually this is way apple wants it so that they can force a 30 percent hike in ebook cost to the consumer to meet their currently high priced ebooks which for the most part seem to be about 30 percent higher then avg.

You decide.. but honestly seeing as the iphone connects a to a cell netowrk or wifi we are not going through any apple infastructure to buy our books Insisting on a 30 percent revenue share is just to push the competitors out of the way of its poor quality ibook app.. and it really is that bad.

Doesnt this remind you of the bully at the school lunch line wanting protection money?

[stonetools]

Doesnt this remind you of the bully at the school lunch line wanting protection money?

Actually, it does'nt. I see Apple allowing (and then encouraging) the existence of third party apps on a platform that originally was not meant to have third party apps. I see Apple's decision bearing fruit in the App Store-the world's largest mobile software store, with 425,000 apps. I see consumers downloading fifteen BILLION apps in three years. I see merchants and Software developers flocking TO-not away from - the Ios platform ( I guess to get bullied).
I see all major booksellers selling on the Ios platform-in competition with Apple's bookstore- while closing their platforms to each other.
I see Apple, for the sake of its consumers, allow these booksellers to remain on its platform, making millions of dollars for themselves , with only slight restrictions on their ability to sell books.
THAT'S reality, as I see it.

[leebase]

You can still buy from more book stores on an iPad than anything else. The Kindle buy button merely took you to their website anyway. It's no big deal missing that link.

Those companies had the choice of keeping their in app purchasing, but they did not want to give apple their cut. No big deal, they all have websites where you can order their products.

The NEWS is only this....once again the chicken littles have been shown to be wrong. Everyone's still selling their content for the iPad. Apple has still assembled the best content support for their platform.

From books to magazines to comics to tv to movies to podcasts o university classes to apps.....far and away with no contender in sight, the best place for a tablet owner to be, for content, is the iPad.

Lee

[kjk]

Originally Posted by MrsJoseph

Well, that's that. I guess there's no one left to say nay.

Originally Posted by kjk

Google hasn't re-released their Books app yet.

Oh, yes they just did. http://9to5google.com/2011/07/25/goo...gle-books-app/

You kind of knew this was going to happen: Google Books is now back in the iOS App Store, but without ability to buy books directly from online. Note the missing button at the top left.

[Giggleton]

Originally Posted by jackastor

I very much doubt a browswer for reading will happen. Its in efficient and too cumbersome.

Are you joking? What are you reading through ATM? For that matter what am I typing through?