Kobo's sticking it to to Apple.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by nrapallo

Or could this half-a-trillion dollar company find a way using safari, it's native web browser....

Find a way? Until the iOS store, it was the only way Apple recommended.

Apple has some nice resources about WebApps in Mobile Safari:
http://developer.apple.com/library/s...pp/_index.html

And in iOS 5, HTML5 webapps might see some nice speed improvements:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20...slow-web-apps/

[Suzanna]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Html5 apps are downloadable, work offline, and can access the local file system.
Properly coded, Kobo can get it to do everything the banned app did and more.

Some people are saying HTML 5 apps, that run on any device, will be the next big thing. I can definitely see the advantages.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by Sao

Some people are saying HTML 5 apps, that run on any device, will be the next big thing. I can definitely see the advantages.

I think there are a lot of potential advantages-moving away from Flash is one.
Having apps that can run cross-platform easily is another.

But there are some issues for developers to be aware of-Matt Gemmel has a nice article that addresses some of them:
http://mattgemmell.com/2011/07/22/apps-vs-the-web

Each project must weigh up the relative merits of native and web apps for itself, but the inescapable fact is that when deploying on the web, from the user’s perspective, you’re probably starting with a disadvantage. There’s cognitive load associated with your app being a bookmark instead of an experience, and there’s an implicit trivialisation which occurs in the user’s mind. It’s unfair, but it’s a reality.

[taming]

The Ibis Reader is an html 5 reader. See: http://ibisreader.com/

[fbrII]

murraypaul,

Which cheek did you tattoo your Apple logo to? Not that it matters, just curious.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by fbrII

murraypaul,

Which cheek did you tattoo your Apple logo to? Not that it matters, just curious.

Yeah, insulting people who enjoy Apple products-never gets old here on MR.

[stonetools]

In an earlier thread, I speculated that booksellers would create a service where they would host books " in the cloud" and stream the books to e-reader devices in return for a monthly subscription fee. People were horrified at the very thought of this . They condemned me as a tool of the publishers, told me that this scheme would destroy the " rights" of ebook consumers and declared that the user experience would necessarily be awful. Now HTML 5 reader apps are viewed as the salvation of ebook consumers, rescuing them from Apple's evil new policies.
Maybe I was just ahead of my time, or something .

[TedJ]

Originally Posted by fbrII

murraypaul,

Which cheek did you tattoo your Apple logo to? Not that it matters, just curious.

Not cool.

[elcreative]

Originally Posted by stonetools

In an earlier thread, I speculated that booksellers would create a service where they would host books " in the cloud" and stream the books to e-reader devices in return for a monthly subscription fee. People were horrified at the very thought of this . They condemned me as a tool of the publishers, told me that this scheme would destroy the " rights" of ebook consumers and declared that the user experience would necessarily be awful. Now HTML 5 reader apps are viewed as the salvation of ebook consumers, rescuing them from Apple's evil new policies.
Maybe I was just ahead of my time, or something .

Using an HTML 5 reader app doesn't mean reading from the internet... haven't you ever read an HTML doc offline... something I do frequently with files on my computer and storage not the net...

The real point was to have an app that allowed downloading AND reading using HTML 5 to avoid Apple's app rules concerning in-app D/Ls...

[stonetools]

The FT app referenced earlier is all about reading content online, though.
You can already buy and download from Kobo.com. Surely their web app is about more than duplicating the functionality of their website.

[TedJ]

Originally Posted by stonetools

Surely their web app is about more than duplicating the functionality of their website.

Perhaps it's a preamble to removing their iOS application altogether?

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by =X=

Quote:
Facebook using HTML5 to get around Apple, Google for mobile apps?
Facebook is reportedly in talks with developers about selling apps and games directly through its mobile browser in an effort to allow it to bypass app stores and the 30 percent revenue cut it gets, according to a new report from Bloomberg.(link)

... so that they can take their own 30% cut instead?

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

Html5 apps are downloadable, work offline, and can access the local file system.
Properly coded, Kobo can get it to do everything the banned app did and more.

Do you have a cite on the last one (access the local file system)?
Unless you mean they can have a semi-permanent cache within the browser?
I don't think they would have access to the rest of the file system (normal apps don't, only their own dedicated space).

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by fbrII

Which cheek did you tattoo your Apple logo to? Not that it matters, just curious.

Ignoring the rather childish insult, perhaps you have misunderstood my point.

Apple's change is a negative for ebook readers, and for ebook stores.
I don't disagree with that, and I don't think I ever have.
It is not however the end of the world, it will (has) not caused the other ebook stores to desert the iOS platform, nor will it cause more than a tiny amount of inconvenience to users. Rather than clicking the Store button in the Kindle app, you go to Safari and browse to amazon.com. That is the extent of the change to the user experience.
So yes, a negative; no, not a major one, and certainly not one that is going to cause the downfall of Apple, or cause Amazon et al to cut their noses off to spite their faces and pull their apps from the iPad.

Secondly, I personally think people have a vastly overinflated view of the importance of ebooks to Apple, and are mistaken if they think that ebooks are what caused the change to Apple's subscription policies. (They are called subscription policies. You don't subscribe to ebooks, you do to magazines and newspapers.)
Apple knew that none of the ebook stores would possibly agree to the 30% in-app purchase charge (and indeed they would have been completely stuck if one of them had done, as they simply aren't set up to handle the size of in-app library that the ebook stores would need).
What happened is exactly what was predicted several months ago, that Apple would relax the rules enough to allow Amazon et al to stay on, and nothing would really change.
Amazon want to be on the iPad, Apple want them to be there. Kicking Amazon off might sell more iBooks, but it would sell less iPads, and the first is irrelevant in comparison to the other. I'll just repeat the revenue figures again. Last quarter Apple made more than four times as much revenue from selling new iPads as it made from selling all content to all existing iOS devices. Plus they actually make significant profit on hardware, while iTunes runs at just over breakeven.[0]

Thirdly, I don't understand the idea that what Kobo have announced is some world-shattering thing that will bring Apple to its knees. They might do a web-app. So what? It will almost certainly provide a worse user experience than a real app would, and what benefit does it provide to users? Not having to switch to another window to buy a book. Big deal.

0: I can't find a quote from the 2011 figures, but from the 2010 investors call:

Maynard Um–UBS
We have seen a number of industry revenue forecasts for applications and just given kind of the expected explosive growth there I am just wondering if that is still a break-evenish type of business as you look forward over the next couple of years?…
[Apple CFO] Peter Oppenheimer
…Regarding the App Store and the iTunes stores, we are running those a bit over break even and that hasn’t changed. We are very excited to be providing our developers with a fabulous opportunity and we think that is helping us a lot with the iPhone and the iPod touch platform.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by fbrII

Which cheek did you tattoo your Apple logo to? Not that it matters, just curious.

...