WWDC iBooks

[Tamara]

Steve Jobs just announced that 5 million ebooks have been downloaded through iBooks in the last 65 days.

[AnemicOak]

That's a lot of books. I wonder how many were paid and how many were freebie's. I'm assuming they have freebies?

[Tamara]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

That's a lot of books. I wonder how many were paid and how many were freebie's. I'm assuming they have freebies?

iBooks includes access to Gutenberg books.

[Worldwalker]

But people don't read anymore!

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by Worldwalker

But people don't read anymore!

'sokay, I think there's an app for that.

[Teddman]

That only averages out to 2.5 books per iPad owner. Not really that many.

[HarryT]

Lots of nice new features for iBooks coming - PDF support, note taking, etc. There's a thread giving more detail in the Apple forum:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86134

[leebase]

Originally Posted by Teddman

That only averages out to 2.5 books per iPad owner. Not really that many.

From zero sales to 5 million in 60 days isn't "that much"? That's about a book a month for each iPad, and ipads selling a million each month.

That's how you get 22% market share for eboojs for publishers that sell through Appke in only 2 months. That's quite the success by any measure

Lee

[rcuadro]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

That's a lot of books. I wonder how many were paid and how many were freebie's. I'm assuming they have freebies?

Figure that you can get Whinie the Poo for free that would account for a ton of downloads

[AnemicOak]

Why Apple’s iBook Numbers Are Meaningless...
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/0...e-meaningless/

[Teddman]

Originally Posted by leebase

From zero sales to 5 million in 60 days isn't "that much"? That's about a book a month for each iPad, and ipads selling a million each month.

That's how you get 22% market share for eboojs for publishers that sell through Appke in only 2 months. That's quite the success by any measure

Lee

I just don't think a 2.5 book average per device is very impressive. That's roughly one book a month. For instance, the average Kindle owner probably buys three or four times that amount in the first two months of ownership.

This tells us that for most iPad owners, iBooks is not a very big part of the motivation for buying or usage habits.

Also, the 22% marketshare statement from Jobs doesn't mean much. Penguin stacked the deck by only selling their ebooks through iBooks for most of those two months. On the other hand, Random House, the biggest publisher of all, doesn't sell on iBooks. It's a bogus statistic.

[kjk]

Given the limited selection in iBooks, I'm surprised they could average 2.5 books/iPad

[leebase]

I think we can rest assured that the kindle didn't push 5 million books in the first two months of release.

I think that it's not a big leap to assume that each kindle user reads more books....it's a device that costs $275 on up and all it's for is reading. But kindle didn't sell two million in the first two months.

The iPad is going to double the lifetime sales of kindles before the end of the year. There will probably be more kindle books sold for the iPad than for the kindle a year from now.

Lee

[Teddman]

Originally Posted by leebase

There will probably be more kindle books sold for the iPad than for the kindle a year from now.

Lee

Good point. Apple may not even be the dominant provider of ebooks on their own device.

[kjk]

Originally Posted by Teddman

Good point. Apple may not even be the dominant provider of ebooks on their own device.

I'm sure both B&N and Amazon know exactly who is using what to buy and read their books and how many...the question is, when will they tell the rest of us