Investors are betting on Apple

[ficbot]

Originally Posted by Maggie Leung

I've spent 99 cents on an iPad guide. Don't plan to buy others from iBooks because they're tethered to Apple only.

This is a good point. The Kindle books can be read on more than one device and the Apple books cannot. Plus-

- Not everyone prefers reading on the iPad. Personally, I love mine for teaching, light gaming and media consumption but prefer a Kindle-sized screen---I have been trained, I guess, to read books on that size of a page, and the longer/bigger page of the iPad makes me feel impatient.

- Not everyone who buys an iPad prefers reading novels. They may attract the manga/comic/magazine crowd (Zinio is gorgeous and subscriptions are quite affordable) but those are not Apple purchases.

- Not everyone who buys an iPad prefers reading, period. Some are buying it to play games, watch videos, entertain kids etc. Some will use the PDF function to read their personal documents.

- iBooks is currently not selling books world-wide. At least, here in Canada, all you can get are the freebies.

I also think that people who buy the Kindle---since all it can do is read---are pretty much guaranteed customers, from a statistical standpoint. Some will know where to get public domain freebies and prefer to read those, but the vast majority of people who buy a Kindle buy it for the purposes of reading novels, which they buy from the device itself via the Kindle store. The same cannot be said of iPad customers, who as I said may not read at all, may not read novels at all, may already be enmeshed in another store, or may be reluctant to jump aboard the locked-in Apple DRM train.

I am not denying that Apple is a major player, from a hardware standpoint. But as far as the business of selling books goes, the game is FAR from over.

[Dellaster]

Originally Posted by ficbot

[...Many excellent points...]

I am not denying that Apple is a major player, from a hardware standpoint. But as far as the business of selling books goes, the game is FAR from over.

As a recent iPad purchaser awaiting the two-week back order from the Apple Store, I concur with your opinions. I won't be buying much if anything from the iBook store, nor is it likely I'll do much novel-length fiction reading on it.

That's not to say that the iPad won't be hugely influential in the ebook market, even if Apple doesn't sell many books. Heck, it already is. It has brought vastly increased awareness of ebooks to the masses and made it look like a cool thing to do, not just a niche nerdy one. Would Gucci ever have made a bag for the Kindle?

Amazon.com and the other players may end up with less of the ebook market share yet still come up winners because the iPad expands the market so much. The next year or so should be interesting.

[Maggie Leung]

iPad has actually broadened my e-book consumption, because I can read on so many apps. I have six book apps on my iPad and use 'em about 85 percent of my time on the device. I love this freaking gadget. I just wish it had longer battery life. I hate having to revert to Kindle and Mighty Bright when I charge my iPad at night.

[astra]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Personally I find the "reading experience" on the iPad to be much, much nicer than that of the Kindle.

Then again, you are the one who was reading for years ebooks on small hand held backlit devices without any problems.

[jbjb]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

Apple has absolutely not "owned the nerds". Hipsters, yes. Posers, yes. But nerds want computers -- and other devices -- they can fiddle with, which is the absolute antithesis of Apple's "we'll tell you what's good for you" attitude. Nerds are the people who hate platform lock-in, not embrace it.

That's not entirely consistent with my experience. I work in an extremely high-tech, nerdy environment, and usage here of Apple kit is far higher than the average amongst the general population. For example, the incidence of OS X Macs/MacBooks/MacBookPros, relative to Windows PCs and laptops, is significantly higher than the overall market share.

iPhones and iPads are also ubiquitous in this environment.

/JB

[John F]

Funny, I work in a similar environment, and I would say Apple ownership is one in four. Maybe your in a hipster-nerd environment?

[jbjb]

Originally Posted by John F

Funny, I work in a similar environment, and I would say Apple ownership is one in four.

Bear in mind that the overall Mac share of the PC market is about 3.6%, so if your one-in-four refers to PCs then your environment also shows a bigger than average share for Macs.

Maybe your in a hipster-nerd environment?

Certainly not - it's very high on nerd factor, but not remotely fashion conscious. :-)

/JB