iBooksOne of the moments that stood out for readers during Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference today involved the iBooks app. With Apple’s new OS X Mavericks, readers can purchase books and read them on the app right on their desktop.

Some Apple consumers are probably thinking it’s about time.

Readers have been using Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook apps. However, they can’t purchase books directly through the app. Only the Windows 8 app for Nook allows for purchases and reading in the same app.

With Amazon and B&N likely having more ground in the e-books marketplace, this gives Apple another arm at competing. Consumers like to browse whether it’s physically in a store or online, going from one product to the next.

Giving buyers another avenue to purchase books seems like a no-brainer, especially on Apple’s part.

One of the more interesting aspects of the app will be its use for students. There are note-taking and highlighting abilities, which could come in handy when using a textbook on the app.

Apple says there are 1.8 million books in the iBookstore.

NO COMMENTS

  1. Apple’s traditional attitude has been that people with earlier versions can go hang. You can’t download many of their apps for anything older than the most recent versions, and they think nothing of dropping older hardware from current OS support. Why should this be any different?

  2. Hey Apple how about making it easier for everyone, just let me read my itunes purchased ebooks through the existing itunes program. You know like the way I can play my music I have there. But I think it will be a long long time before I can read itunes ebooks on my PC laptop.

  3. Stewart says that he wants to read eBooks in the iTunes app. Not me. The iTunes app is waaaay to bloated already. Let’s NOT add eBooks to that bloat.

    I think that iOS is a harbinger of the future on MacOS X. On iOS , we deal with podcasts in a separate app called Podcasts. It’s new and has some warts but it is a stand alone app. In iOS we deal with iTunes U courses via the iTunes U app, also new and warty but it, too, stands alone. On MacOS X and Windows, there is this monolith called iTunes app that does podcasts and iTunes U courses less well than on iOS. I say thank goodness that iBooks app stands alone on both iOS and MacOS X.

  4. Okay I guess the itunes app is bloated. But I would still like to read my ibooks on my PC laptop. Apple sells music that I can play on my PC, why not the ibooks that they sell as well? Which I guess is never going to happen. That’s why I buy all my ebooks now from Amazon.

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