What the Apple iPad means for e-books – a first take
Author: Hoger
The good news is that the newly announced Apple iPad is a much more exciting device in terms of what it brings to the e-book game than it is an an overall computing device. In general terms it’s just an over-sized iPhone that has a few new peripherals (like a keyboard – hooray). But it still doesn’t support Flash and Apple has decided wanting a device that is capable of multi-tasking is just too 1980s.
But the interesting news is what it means for the e-book market.
The iPad introduces a new app called iBooks which links with a dedicated e-bookstore called iBookstore (enough with the “i”s already). It supports ePub as its native format! Apple adopting an industry standard is almost unheard of and it will be interesting to see if Apple allows access to ePub books bought for Stanza (or someone adds this functionality through a hack). They already have in place agreements with major publishers such as Penguin, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Hachette.
But the device is not the issue – Apple entering the e-book trade is. These developments – support for e-Pub and Apple having a dedicated e-bookstore will mean a lot for the business. If only we could convince them to open the store up to non-Apple devices.
What it will mean for the Kindle, who knows at this stage. But it’s 2.5 times heavier, thicker and larger, has a shorter battery life and there’s still that backlit LCD screen. I don’t think it’s a Kindle-killer. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a big leap for e-publishing.
January 28th, 2010 at 7:49 am
I get the sense this will be like the iPod Touch, brilliant hardware & interface crippled by limitations which make the device less than it could be. That said the Touch + Stanza is a brilliant ebook reader, I’ve used it more as a reader than I have as a jukebox.
As you mentioned the distribution element is the big thing here, being an industry format is a positive sign and will hopefully allow access beyond the iPad and portability beyond devices (ie – my purchases being linked to my account rather than my device).
January 28th, 2010 at 7:53 am
Yeah – oversized iPod Touch is the kinda sense I get too. The geek in me would have loved a bit more netbook computing oomph. Surely it’s got the power to do some serious computing!
January 28th, 2010 at 10:57 am
Hi there,
Stanza will be available through the backwards compatibility with iPhone apps.
In fact, I suspect even the Kindle for iPhone will work on it.
I actually really like the idea and think it could help convert more people to eReading (I’ve been a convert for years since I got an old HP iPaq) but the bigger screen size will be a plus.
It is so much easier to carry an electronic library around with you when you travel than lots of books.
Damon
January 28th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
It’s more whether there’s access to the e-books across applications that I’m interested in, not so much just running Stanza (or any other e-reader).
It looks like the iBook support will be through a separate app rather than run as native support on the machine. This does not bode well for me being able to read an e-book I’ve bought from Apple in Stanza and vice versa. But we’ll see.
March 19th, 2012 at 1:10 pm
Some genuinely prime articles on this website, saved to favorites.