Amazon Killed Stanza
It looks like I was right 2 months back when I predicted the end of Stanza; the latest version of iOS was released yesterday and Stanza won’t run anymore.
Update: It took Amazon a month to release it, but there is an update for Stanza.
A friend took the screenshot at right. It shows the Stanza app having a rather impressive crash. To be honest, I’ve never seen such a crash before; most apps just shut down quietly.
iOS5 offers a lot of valuable improvements, new features, and other cool tricks, but it also changed enough that it broke a number of apps. Over the past 5 or so months that it has been available as a beta release, app developers have had the chance to test their apps and fix the problems they found.
But it doesn’t look like Amazon bothered to put any effort into fixing the Stanza app.
There have been numerous crash reports going back 4 or more months and yet no word from Amazon or Lexcycle on when the problems would be fixed. I’d say that is a good sign that Amazon stood back and let the new update kill the app.
All the other reading apps I’ve checked work just fine on iOS5, which means that the developers of the apps proactively worked to identify and correct any issues. Amazon did this for the Kindle app, and I know of a couple other reading apps that even mention iOS 5 in the update notices. The digital textbook developer Kno have even sent out emails warning about possible issues with their app.
This is a time where I regret being right. I had hoped, for the sake of Stanza’s users, that Amazon would come through in the end. Nope. Stanza was last updated back in February 2011, and it looks like that was when Amazon pulled the plug.
Stanza was one of the first best apps on iOS when it launched in 2008, and its success paved the way for all the rest of the reading apps. Amazon bought the company in 2009, for their own reasons. I’d always thought that Amazon bought Stanza just to make sure Apple couldn’t. Given that Amazon appear to have abandoned the app, it looks like I was right.
—
To get more ebook news, subscribe to the RSS feed or the daily email newsletter. You can also follow me on Twitter: @thDigitalReader or find me on FaceBook.
No Comments