I just heard this morning that the Google Books app is no longer available through iTunes, and after some digging I can confirm this is true. Google Books is no longer listed in iTunes.
Curiously enough, the app running on my iPad still works. I fired it up and I can still read all the ebooks including the couple I bought. The app still has the link to the Google eBookstore website, too, which is probably why Apple pulled it.
Interesting. I really expected to see this sooner.
It begins!! Just got an email from Amazon. Kindle 3G for $139. Coincidence? I don’t think so.
Is that the Kindle 3G special offers that was sponsored by AT&T?
That happened a week ago.
Dammit. You know, I didn’t check to see if that was the case. Shit. #FAIL #IBlameTheHeat
Went and updated my post. It’s the AT&T Kindle.
Kobo and Bluefire removed stores, Google left. Very curious to see which direction B&N and Amazon decide to go.
I expect they’ll wait for Apple to delist them from iTunes.
Especially Amazon.
Sadly, B&N seems to have caved (see Nook Kids app).
As for Amazon, will they announce their iOS app decision before or after they announce 1 million Kindle eBooks for sale? They’re at 1,005,000 according to Kindle for Android right now.
To be precise, Google hasn’t entirely left. For the moment(1), Google is the only ebook retailer with a full-fledged web reading interface. I wonder if that channel is why Google (apparently) has made a different decision than the other retailers.
(1) I suspect Amazon has a full Kindle for Web on ice (especially since Google’ s bookstore is the existence proof that there isn’t an absolute licensing bar to the concept).
But does that browser based reading app work in the iPad/iPhone?
Google claims:
“You can read Google eBooks on any browser with JavaScript enabled.”
That doesn’t necessarily mean that the experience would be acceptable on an iPhone or iPad, but it does seem to claim it is possible.
[…] The expulsions have begun – Google Books gone from iOS […]
[…] over at The Digital Reader caught some new changes this morning for ebooks on iOS. Google Books is gone from the App Store, and NOOKkids is now the same as Kobo — you can sync and sign in, […]
I’m curious. I wonder if an app that search for ebooks on all the major web stores, including Apple’s, listed the prices, and provided a clickable web link would past muster.
“Curiously enough, the app running on my iPad still works.”
Apple removing apps from the store has never removed them from users’ devices. That would be idiotic and such a terrible PR move.
[…] The Google Books app vanished from iTunes. […]
This all started back in Feb when Sony Reader was dumped. The advantage that the iPhone and more so the iPad has is the freedom from having to haul around multiple devices. Will the day come when all ebook apps are yanked off iTunes and you will have to carry both an iPad and an ebook device? This is a case where the free-market isn’t working. More ebook formats is not consumer friendly.
[…] news on this developing story is that the Google app has been “pulled” and that the Nook Children’s app no longer has a link to the store. We have to expect that the […]
[…] : http://the-digital-reader.com/2011/07/24/the-expulsions-have-begun-google-books-gone-from-ios/ Partager Applications apple, google, iriver La bataille des formats Amazon = […]