Comments on: Penguin’s Apple love-in

By: Kevin Cullis

Kevin Cullis — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 16:15:40 +0000

What you are not seeing is that Apple now has become the distributor of ebooks and if they so choose they can stop any book from being bought because everything has to be purchased from the iBooks store. They still control what goes in any iPad, not the publisher OR the author.

By: jbelkin

jbelkin — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:57:39 +0000

When there is a format that works … perfect analogy – Apple is the Gutenberg Press of the 21century, you going to get with the times or insist that papyrus is still the better thing because it’s not ‘locked in.’

Apple is simply not only the best choice but the FREEST and MOST OPEN CHOICE. First, if you pick an obscure format that is not popular like WMA or play4sure, the vendor will shut it down and orphan you – ala HTC or Sony. The iBok uses the ebook format – any “free” or other ebok can be loaded on there and ONLY Apple also allows you to buy Kindle and B&N bookstore books to use on the ipad – what was that about not open again?

ONLY the iphone allows you to have 99.9% of the functionality of the iphone without having to buy a phone contract – either completely unattached like the ipod touch or the new ipad which lets you buy internet usage f you want it (otherwise, works on wifi anywhere) … yea, real closed.

The only thing closed are your minds.

It’s very simple. the iphone is the new printing press. you can try and cover your eyes but the 21st century for reading is finally here.

By: David C

David C — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:08:29 +0000

I ordered an iPad today. I’m not concerned about books ever getting locked in to a single platform. It won’t happen.

I’m not sure that tablets have failed heretofore because they lack power or pocketability. Historically, they’ve been pricey and have run OSes designed for mouse and keyboard, not touch. In that regard, I wish the HP Slate well, but have deep reservations about the usability of the thing.

If the iPad is a hit, it will be because it’s built from the ground up as a no compromise touch device. iPad 1.0 isn’t going to ruin Apple’s notebook business or anyone elses. It has a clearly defined scope that is unabashed about its limitations. I suspect, though, that it may be the first shot fired in the revolution that will overturn the keyboard/mouse hegemony once and for all.

By: Clyde Davies

Clyde Davies — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:56:07 +0000

Wouldn’t it be bitterly ironic if this trend ended up with the Windows mobile platform being seen as a more open alternative to Apple’s vendor lock-in?
I have a HTC TyTN II and a Sony Reader. Very happy with both of them, thank you, and in no hurry to have to ‘upgrade’ them to Apple devices.

By: Paul Morriss

Paul Morriss — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:48:44 +0000

Your post reminded me of one by Craig Mod on the iPad and books that I came across via Michael Sippey. I'm not surprised that a publisher is excited by the possibility of new forms of "books". However I would have thought that they wouldn't deny themselves a revenue stream by taking existing content and with, presumably less work than with an interactive app, deliver it in ebook form.