One of the benefits of electronic media is that e-book stores are never closed for the holidays—at least for purchasers. But in some cases, for publishers, it’s another story. EbookNewser reports Apple’s iBookstore team sent an email to iBookstore sellers letting them know that the iTunes Connect app and e-book publishing platform is down from now until Thursday, December 29th for the holidays. It will not be taking any new updates during this time, and scheduled releases and pricing changes will be delayed.

The iBookstore team wrote in an email to iTunes Connect users: “ We strongly recommend that you do not schedule pricing changes through the interval pricing system in iTunes Connect that would take effect from December 22 through December 29. Pricing changes scheduled to take effect during this date range will not be reflected in the iBookstore and the book will become unavailable for purchase. We also recommend that you do not schedule any books to go live during the shutdown. Releases scheduled with a sales start date between these dates will not go live until after the shutdown.”

I imagine Apple employees need their Christmas time off, too.

3 COMMENTS

  1. Yes, indeed. It is both perplexing and insensitive to clients all over the wold that don’t celebrate the christian holiday. I would be more inclined to accept such a decision if Apple were merely a national outfit. Even then ,in a multicultural country such as the U.S.A it would still be a poor move. Moreover, when combined with the fact that iTunes remains open for business as usual during the same holiday season and that sales figures are certainly readily available to their executives, this seems to be quite an arrogant move on their part. Surely many developers feel frustrated by such a self-serving decision that seems to be completely at odds with a business involving an agency that that works on behalf of developers. Then again, perhaps Apple see it the other way around. Whatever the case, it has created a negative impact on their brand.

  2. I agree it is a lengthy vacation, but Apple employees do need a break, too. Starshine, Hanukkah ends the 28th, Kwanzaa begins the 26th. Neither of those are Christian holidays. It looks rather multicultural to close over three religious holidays.

The TeleRead community values your civil and thoughtful comments. We use a cache, so expect a delay. Problems? E-mail newteleread@gmail.com.