Bloomberg: Apple Changing the Name of iBooks to Books Means a New Fight in the eBook Market

25.01.2018 Nate Hoffelder No Comments

Bloomberg is making a mountain out of a molehill over an upcoming change to one of Apple’s apps.

Someone over there heard that Apple is updating iBooks and changing its name, and somehow became convinced that "Apple’s Getting Back Into the E-Books Fight Against Amazon".

Apple is ready to take on Amazon in the digital book market again, years after regulators forced the iPhone maker to back down from an earlier effort to challenge the e-commerce giant’s lead.

Apple is working on a redesigned version of its iBooks e-book reading application for iPhones and iPads and has hired an executive from Amazon to help.

The new app, due to be released in coming months, will include a simpler interface that better highlights books currently being read and a redesigned digital book store that looks more like the new App Store launched last year, according to people familiar with its development. The revamped app in testing includes a new section called Reading Now and a dedicated tab for audio books, the people said.

Apple released an early version of its iOS 11.3 mobile operating system update to developers on Wednesday, providing a hint that the new e-books app is on the way. The app is now simply called "Books," rather than "iBooks," according to the update.

While the new changes are cool and all, the only thing they signal is that Apple has released a periodic update to iBooks. It has been two years since the last major update to iBooks, so the app was past due for a refresh.

Yes, Apple is making a big push to increase revenue for content sold on its devices, but that is not the same as saying Apple is competing in the ebook market again.

Before you can make that argument you will need to show me the Apple Books app for Android. Or, show me Apple hyping the Apple Books app on its next media event.

Without a major shift in Apple’s behavior to back up Bloomberg’s premise, they might as well be working from the blink patterns from Tim Cook’s last interview.