No e-books are in the top 100 paid apps for the iPhone’s US app store for the past three weeks, according to Ben Lorica’s O’Reilly blog item.
But guess what? Michael Zapp at ZappTek.com reports:
“We only have preliminary data, so we don’t know how things will go over the long term. But at least one author has indicated that his books are selling better for the iPhone than the Kindle.”
Observation: Remember, these are books—unique apps, not necessarily e-reader software for many books. At any rate I wish Apple would treat books as books and not as apps, since I don’t want them tied to special hardware or software platform. Let’s think instead in terms of ePub files usable on most any machine.
Related: ZapTek’s Legends e-book software area. Also see iPhone-related info for eReader and Stanza.
(Via Read 2.0.)
False issue.
1) The books are generally public domain.
2) No “brand names.”
3) How can anyone tell what new business eReader might have gotten from their iPhone app?
“Generally.” That’s the key word, Mike. As for eReader, just follow the link already given for info on the app’s popularity. No dollars and cents figure. But it’s obvious that the App Store has been good to eReader, and that this is just the start.
Thanks,
David
That’s a curious statement because what books are specially formatted for the iPhone that have regular commercial appeal? I.e., the books that are individual apps don’t have a lot of commercial relevance, imo. And the rest of the books that are frequently read on the iPhone, say via the ereader app, are ereader purchases, not special iPhone purchases.
Hi, Jane. He could be talking about books in the Legend format. – David
And there’s a site packaging up lots of Project Gutenberg books as individual apps, at http://appengines.com/. While I’m happy with Stanza, I’m guessing that the average consumer might like books packaged as individual apps better than buying it through a retailer app like FictionWise’s eReader — seems more like you “own” it.
Put it this way, Bill. If it isn’t DRMed, I’m flexible. I just wonder about treating books like apps. The real goal should be to make e-reader software and the rest easy enough so people can just guy the content files. As for Stanza, it’s wonderful but is very much a work in progress, as Marc could be the first to admit. For a $0 program, we get a lot for our money ;-). David