A Roundup post on this weekend’s iOS Reading App Massacre
The Google Books app vanished from iTunes some time last week, and then reappeared Monday afternoon sans the link to the ebookstore.
B&N updated the Nook Kids app and it lost the ebookstore link too.
The WSJ announced they were going to update their iOS app and remove the link to their website, just like the reading apps, Netflix, and others.
Monday Night Update: The massacre kept happening throughout the day Monday.
B&N updated the Nook iPhone app and it lost the ebookstore link. But the nook iPad app seems to have vanished from iTunes.
Amazon updated the Kindle app, and it lost the link to the ebookstore.
last but not least, I noticed earlier today that Spotify and Rhapsody were both updated last week and they both lost the subscription link.
Apple ought to realise that many of us won’t buy books from them as these books can only be read on Apple platforms – didn’t they learn anything about DRM from their music business? They should also know (and appreciate) that many of us bought an iPod/iPhone to replace our PDAs as ultraportable books readers.
You have to wonder what Jobs is thinking. This seems like the same control-freak behavior that almost killed Apple the first time around.
iBooks can’t even be read on all Apple platforms (no iBooks for Mac). They just don’t get what readers want from their ebooks.
At best they’re trying to replicate the iPod / DRM music model without realizing the ebook world is different. At worst, they’re saying iBooks should win because they control the iPhone and iPad.