Apple reveals iBooks Store and app for the iPad
Put this down as something else rumored that's come to fruition today. Apple's just announced iBooks, an e-reader app and bookstore for the iPad, using the ePub format. We're seeing prices around $12.99 to $14.99 so far... looks pretty slick!
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple's iBooks announcement lands at its 'latest creation' event in San Francisco, the day the long-rumored tablet stopped being a rumor: interest in the reveal was heavy enough to overwhelm live-blogging services, and the USPTO had already granted Apple a major tablet-related patent ahead of launch. iBooks — an e-reader app plus bookstore built on the open ePub format — turns the device into a reading platform out of the box.
The notable details in the debut are the format and the price band: ePub means publishers' existing files need no proprietary conversion, while the $12.99–$14.99 price points shown on stage set expectations well above deep-discount e-book pricing. With no prior corpus coverage of Apple in books, this is the opening move of that business.
First-order effects
- Publishers get a second mass-market storefront overnight, with ePub support removing the cost of reformatting catalogs for Apple's device.
- iPad buyers see a curated bookstore priced at roughly $12.99–$14.99 per title, establishing Apple's opening position on e-book price points.
Second-order effects
- Amazon's Kindle business now competes against a store pre-installed on a new Apple device, forcing it to defend both its hardware franchise and its pricing posture.
- Publishers gain a bargaining counter: a credible alternative buyer lets them resist aggressive e-book discounting from any single retailer.
Third-order effects
- If Apple's scale makes ePub the default trade format, e-book retail fragments around an open standard rather than proprietary reader ecosystems, shifting power toward whoever controls the storefront and its commission.
The trend: E-book retail is moving from a single-retailer discount model toward platform owners building commission-taking stores around open formats, with Apple's entry as the pivotal data point.