iFlow reader another casualty thanks to the Agency 5 and Apple

[Sil_liS]

All sales agents get a 30% commission on the sale of a book. No one gets a different deal. Prior to the agency model, publishers typically offered retailers a 50% discount.

So for other books, they would still make 20%.

[egarbacz]

Check out the post from the Bluefire team: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=524

It seems like even their business plan isn't working for iOS. I understand it is tough for small businesses to succeed but with Apple stacking the deck against them makes it impossible and will kill innovation for ebook reading on the iOS platform.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by egarbacz

Check out the post from the Bluefire team: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=524

Wow... on the bright side, Bluefire for Android would be cool.

[DMB]

Last year I did consider getting an iPad, but if I did, I wouldn't principally want to read ebooks on it. I might want to read newspapers and journals.

I first had a piece of Apple hardware back in the 1980s (Mac II) and remained loyal to Apple for years, but I did get fed up with certain aspects of Apple's style. When Jobs was in control there was always an element of "We know what's good for you far better than you know yourself". Of course, Microsoft suffered from the same disease, but I think MS has got slightly better over the years, listening to users to some extent (goodbye infuriating paperclip, for instance). Jobs is brilliant at marketing, and Apple still has a cadre of loyal users, but when I see what they're up to now all desire for an iPad evaporates.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by DMB

Jobs is brilliant at marketing, and Apple still has a cadre of loyal users, but when I see what they're up to now all desire for an iPad evaporates.

Maybe things will get better once Steve is gone.

[=X=]

Originally Posted by RockdaMan

I've never purchased an app either.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2534

Thanks Rock, I'll try this out tonight.

=X=

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Maybe things will get better once Steve is gone.

Disgusting.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by egarbacz

Check out the post from the Bluefire team: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=524

It seems like even their business plan isn't working for iOS. I understand it is tough for small businesses to succeed but with Apple stacking the deck against them makes it impossible and will kill innovation for ebook reading on the iOS platform.

At least Bluefire (and its BAM clone) will continue to work as-is, even if it is pushed out of the App Store. Not so with iFlow Reader, since it can only download content from the iFlowreader web site, which will be going off line.

As far as other apps that support Adobe DRM on iOS, there is txtr (and its clones). txtr also makes an Android app so even if it is removed from iTunes, it should continue to work since their web site will still be there. I don't remember if it supports library DRM, however, and my instance of it has forgotten my Adobe ID credentials, as have I, so I can't check this until I am back home where I have it written down.

Note that the Nook, Kobo/Borders and Google Books apps do not actually use Adobe RMSDK, so side-loading (possible only with Kobo) of Adobe DRM books will not work. Overdrive app DOES use RMSDK, but doesn't allow side loading. So Bluefire and txtr are the only options, and they might leave iTunes App Store.

The Bluefire-powered BAM app might persist, since it could theoretically survive without a direct Store link (Books-A-Million is the 3rd largest book retailer in the US and might be able to justify providing a free app just for the brand exposure).

So if you have a collection of Adobe DRM books that you want to read on iOS, download these apps before they go away!

[toddos]

Originally Posted by tomsem

At least Bluefire (and its BAM clone) will continue to work as-is, even if it is pushed out of the App Store. Not so with iFlow Reader, since it can only download content from the iFlowreader web site, which will be going off line.

More importantly, Bluefire isn't knee-jerking. They said (paraphrased) "there may not be a place for us on iOS". That's quite a bit different than iFlow's (paraphrased) "Apple runs the Totalitarian States of America and I can't see straight!! !! uu!!". It sounds like they're going to wait for Apple to make the first move in kicking them out, rather than taking their ball and going home like iFlow. And of course they already had a plan in place to port to Android, and the company itself has a lot more going on than just the Bluefire reader so they're not in the precarious position of iFlow where they bet everything on iOS and then folded because Apple raised the bet.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Maybe things will get better once Steve is gone.

Not going to happen.
They're already growing a clone to transplant his brain into.
They contracted an outfit from Jackson's Whole that specializes in that kind of clandestine operation.

Jobs is rich enough and clever enough to cheat death indefinitely.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tomsem

So if you have a collection of Adobe DRM books that you want to read on iOS, download these apps before they go away!

You do realize that will only work until Apple updates iOS to make it incompatible with the old apps, right?

("iOS 5 ain't done til ADEPT won't run!")

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

You do realize that will only work until Apple updates iOS to make it incompatible with the old apps, right?

("iOS 5 ain't done til ADEPT won't run!")

Yes, there is always that possibility. But it is not worth Apple's trouble.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by toddos

...and the company itself has a lot more going on than just the Bluefire reader so they're not in the precarious position of iFlow where they bet everything on iOS and then folded because Apple raised the bet.

Bear in mind that iFLOW's business was the eBookstore, not the app.
What Apple is doing is foreclosing on competitors that sell books, not competing reading apps.
As the iFlow Devs pointed out, 90% of their catalog is from the Price-Fix Six, so their *gross* margin is 30%. Apple's requirements effectively force them to turn over all revenue, not just profit, to Apple.

Don Corleone never got *that* bold.

Comparing these guys to Bluefire, which is a reader app, not a bookstore, or Amazon isn't quite fair because Amazon's Kindle app works fine solely as a client for Amazon's cloud-based Kindle book storage. They can easily say: "Shop for the best selection and lowest prices at our website" (without even spelling it out) and *everybody* will know where to go. Plus Kindle's catalog isn't dominated by the Price Fix Six (last I heard, 54% of Amazon ebooks come from other, wiser publishers, including themselves.)
That won't work for independents who are hardly household names and whose catalog and pricing is already duplicated by the iBookstore.

What Apple is doing is "culling the herd", wiping out everybody not named Amazon, Nook, and Kobo. And, ensuring that the only app that sells ebooks on iOS is theirs.

I make no judgments myself but I do expect lawsuits to come.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Yes, there is always that possibility. But it is not worth Apple's trouble.

Realistically, neither are any of the small fry impacted by this move.
This move is pure spite because iBooks is, at best, muddling through instead of dominating. Amazon et al aren't whining because the bottom line impact to them is far less than Apple is doing to its credibility among iOS developers and consumers. And, it is awfully close to a major antitrust violation if not actually one (that is for lawyers to debate and make money off).

Whatever the virtues of the iPxxx gadgets, these kind of shennigans go a long way towards cancelling the appeal of the iOS platform to everybody but the blind faithful, and all for zero gain.

Cause iBooks is still going to be an also-ran in ebook sales to Kindle, B&N, and Kobo.

[forcheville]

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