iPad
Brian Kellett - On Wednesday, January 27, 2010 at 8:05PM Given what we know, what does the iPad mean for the ebook market?
Apple’s new iPad has a new feature, and the iTunes store sprouts an ebook marketplace. So what does this mean for those of us who like our ebooks.
From what we already know the iPad uses EPUB as it’ book format. I would guess that this will almost certainly use Adobe’s Adept DRM system. This is the same system that is used in the Waterstones and other non-kindle ebook stores. It’s a common and open format and if you don’t have a kindle it’s almost certainly the format that you are buying books in.
So far, so what?
Well, Apple say that iPhone apps will work on the iPad. What is one of the apps that I have on my iPhone’s main screen?
‘Kindle for iPhone’.
This means that the iPad has the potential to be the first ‘dual format’ device, being able to read both Kindle and non-Kindle DRMed books.
For any other format there is the ‘Stanza for iPhone’ application.
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Using the EPUB format means that we won’t be seeing ebook + ‘DVD extras’ type books, not unless publishers release them as stand alone apps.
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Of course, this is assuming that Amazon, or Apple, don’t do something nasty like block their Kindle app from running on the iPad - given some of the craziness in the ebook world one or more apps being blocked sadly wouldn’t surprise me that much.
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The second important announcement was the ‘iBook store’, with five big publishers all signing up to it and Apple actively courting more. Unfortunately we don’t know too many of the details of this (such as if it will allow individual authors to publish like Amazon’s DTP).
It will be very interesting to see the breadth and depth of the ebook catalogue. I suspect that it will be quite large as publishers hope for the same sorts of profits that application makers have been seen to earn from iPhone apps.
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I shall end with a hopeful bit of speculation - that Apple release an iBook reader iPhone application that syncs across all of my machines much as my Kindle and Kindle for Mac books effortlessly sync.
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Reader Comments (1)
i'd guess ultimately, the same thing the home computer and the laptop meant for the ebook market. reflective screen technology *could* go away, now that people are sooooo in love with the groovy newfangled technology of the backlit display (ooh! when did they invent *that*!?), and believe they have evolved in a single generation to not have their circadian rhythms disrupted by light shining in their eyes at night.
and of course apple will sell tons of ipads, one way or another. most will move while it's winter and the days are short, and only those who are on vacation will be entertaining the notion of taking their new toy to the *beach*... then once they're really hooked, they'll never go outside again. oh wait. they already don't go outside, 'cause they all got a wii for christmas.
one step closer to our becoming the culture predicted by 'wall-e'? with the right marketing strategy, of course it could happen.
seriously, though, who knows. people who don't read talk about reading a lot, and loudly. it'll be some time before we can see what people actually *do*.