Aussie iBooks get some colour, 5 months after launch
Posted Wednesday, November 3, 2010 at 9:15 am by Jason Cartwright
Despite launching months ago, its only today that Apple’s iBooks actually becomes a serious offering. Local publishers included in today’s launch include Macmillan Publishers Australia, Hatchette Book Group, Hardie Grant, HarperCollins Publishers, Wiley and Murdoch Books. While its great to finally have some local content, it does sound some Aussie publishers were left out in the cold.
Some of you may remember a post some time ago regarding the Australian iBooks store, in that I complained that iBooks was a dull shade of brown and grey. The covers where from titles in the public domain, titles that basically had cover artwork. Today all that changed, the iBooks store on the iPhone or iPad is now a much more pleasent experience.
While not exactly cheap, I’d suggest you take advantage of the ‘Download a sample’ option. If you decide you like, then you can pony up the cash for the full version. While other book stores (Kindle, Kobo, Amazon etc) are available, I think iBooks will be the place of choice for a majority of users.
I’m not sure that iBooks will be the single feature that will drive someone to buy an iDevice, but it could certainly be an added benefit for existing users. Going forward, it’ll be interesting to see how iOS device sales compare to Amazon’s Kindle, now that Apple have a serious book offering. Hopefull those publishers that missed out today, will be added over time, much like the music collection.
iBooks store is still a dull shade of brown
Posted Monday, July 26, 2010 at 8:54 pm by Jason CartwrightSince the iPad launched in Australia on May 28th this year, the iBooks store has been a dull shade of brown. The reason – book rights. One would assume that between the iPad announcement and it’s release, Apple would have been working with Australian publishers to get licensing sorted. Apparently not, even with the month-long delay of the Australian iPad launch and the months since then, the iBook store is still a dull shade of brown.
The books that are available are part of Project Gutenberg, a movement to distribute older works that have reached public domain status. Whilst the books are free, copyright law prevents work being entered into the public domain until every last possible skerrick of change can be stripped from the book +about 50 years. So if your after anything recent, your out of luck.
What is surprising is that other publishing platforms have been able to get the deals done to distribute Australian titles electronically. Amazon Kindle, Kobo, Barnes & Noble and Borders all have their own iPad applications offering a decent catalogue (including coloured covers). So while competition is usually great for consumers, Apple’s “integrated experience” is essentially broken when it comes to iBooks as users have to resort to alternate options.
The current state of iBooks in Australia is a shame given the iBooks app actually has some great features. iBooks does great job with iPhone/iPad page synchronization and PDF support.
Below you can see screens from the US iBooks store, full of engaging, colourful book covers. This is a result of Apple establishing deals with multiple US-based publishing / distributing firms.
So how long will Australians have to wait for a decent iBooks offering ? Are book publishers hesitant to hand over their library to Apple in fear of being the new Music industry.
