Amazon, B&N, Kobo: iOS aps to be pulled in June

[Grimm]

Don't you apologize wyndslash. This is the guy who worked the system to get a transplant. Not illegal but certainly not very respectable.

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by wyndslash

sorry? i wasn't trying to be spiteful or incite something. but i have heard about his health and it was an honest question...?

i'm not anti-apple. i do use their products after all. however, their recent policies are troubling and well...just a question of priorities, that's all. i am not trying to start a fight ;_;

I completely understood your point. but still put yourself in his shoes for just a moment. I do not like how he has run the company as I think they once had a shot to be a genuinely dominant company in the industry and really in the IBM and HP-Compaq sense of the word they are just a drop in the bucket. But he has created a winning plan whether someone likes him or not that needs to be conceded.

Still, I read your comment as intending to ask if he was not spending too much effort trying to run Apple rather than his health. Look at it this way, a person driven as Jobs NEEDS TO WORK to keep himself going. So it's likely the best thing for him to do as much as he can. I find no fault in this at all.

Now consider nobody knows if it really was Jobs pulling this trigger or not. Right now nobody knows what the official policy really is or who is really making the decisions at Apple. I know they recently released some sort of statement that Jobs was still running the show, but that was possibly only to placate the shareholders.

I had a boss once who was a kidney-pancreas transplant patient. He was back to work two weeks after the transplants. Why? Because getting people as active as possible is found to be one of the best treatments helping such patients survive longer. I see the same thing for Jobs and I hope nobody ever questions his desire to do a good job. We all might see it differently but his motives are all in an effort to succeed and in many cases prove people wrong. Nothing wrong with that....

But I have to agree it's not right to question him in how he chooses to live his life. My only interest is the business decisions and how they could affect my use of the products.

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by Grimm

Don't you apologize wyndslash. This is the guy who worked the system to get a transplant. Not illegal but certainly not very respectable.

if you have proof of this please by all means post it here and now. Otherwise you are guilty of liable.

[Grimm]

It's "libel" and I'm guilty of no such thing. 10 minutes of research will show you want to know. Good night.

[travfar]

There's no cause for concern. I develop iOS apps and Amazon is spinning up an iOS app store. So even if Apple pulls them, you should be able to get the Kindle app directly from the Amazon app store.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by Grimm

Don't you apologize wyndslash. This is the guy who worked the system to get a transplant. Not illegal but certainly not very respectable.

Money talks, but it's not going to do him much good this go around. I'm fairly certain his cancer is back and will take him this time. Very few survive pancreatic cancer.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Aside from Apple changing their mind, what else do you expect to happen? Seriously, the big ebookstores can't afford to cave, and even if they did the in-app option won't work for them.

Please, I'm open to ideas.

There are a huge number of unknowns here, and very little actual information, versus commentary, anonymous blog posts and guesswork.

Apple's statements been few, and vague on what exactly is affected, beyond saying that magazine subscriptions are, everything else is unknown at this point.

Maybe they are being deliberately vague so that they can sent this up as a trial balloon and see what the reaction is. Maybe it is just corporate inertia. Maybe it is affected by Job's health, and there is a vacuum at the top, who knows.

IF it turns out that this 30% cut applies to all ebooks sold that can be read on iOS devices, then it is a big deal, but noone knows that yet.

[CHunter_Author]

Originally Posted by Shack70

For those of you on iOS check out Stanza as an alternative with support. It will not read DRMed files but all in all it is a good ebook reader and it is free. Stanza is available for other mobile devices as well I think

Stanza in iTunes Store

For a free e-book reader, Stanza is really good. I prefer the Stanza to the iBook app by a mile on my phone.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Joykins

If I were B&N or Amazon, I would create an in-app purchasing doohickey that was difficult to use and had only the 3,000 top-selling books and involve an in-app convenience surcharge.

No. They shouldn't.
That is the last thing they should do.
Looking for work-arounds or sneaky tricks is just playing Apple's game.
The only reasonable thing to do is nothing.
Collect evidence and let Apple do as if will.

If they kick out all media apps, let them.
If they want to stop allowing reader apps to run, let it be *their* decision.
If they want to patch iOS so the existing installed apps don't work, let it be *their* decision.
If they want to herd all they customers into buying only through iBooks, let it be *their* decision.

If they can get away with it, they deserve what they they get.
If they can't get away with it, they deserve what they get.

No need for the competitors to debate, get into public shouting matches, sneaky back-stabs, "clever" half-compliance moves. No need to get down and dirty in the pigsty.

Do nothing.
Ignore the bullying.
See what happens, then.

[Graham]

And IF it turns out that this 30% cut applies to all ebooks sold, I'd expect the big vendors to move to HTML5 web-based apps, which I understand could allow a certain amount of caching for offline reading.

Amazon already have the beta version of their web-based Kindle browser up, and there's time to develop that further before June 30th.

They could also get together to promote a central web app 'market' (effectively just links), to compete with the device-specific markets across all devices with HTML5-compatible browsers.

Graham

[Lemurion]

I personally think that if anything can kill this it's going to be the 3000 item limit.

Having said that, I'm really curious about the idea of an Amazon iOS app store - that would require a lot more flexibility and openness on the part of Apple than I for one am used to seeing. Especially as it goes against one of the greatest strengths of a curated environment.

I don't like curated environments, but they do have strengths.

[wyndslash]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

I completely understood your point. but still put yourself in his shoes for just a moment. I do not like how he has run the company as I think they once had a shot to be a genuinely dominant company in the industry and really in the IBM and HP-Compaq sense of the word they are just a drop in the bucket. But he has created a winning plan whether someone likes him or not that needs to be conceded.

Still, I read your comment as intending to ask if he was not spending too much effort trying to run Apple rather than his health. Look at it this way, a person driven as Jobs NEEDS TO WORK to keep himself going. So it's likely the best thing for him to do as much as he can. I find no fault in this at all.

Now consider nobody knows if it really was Jobs pulling this trigger or not. Right now nobody knows what the official policy really is or who is really making the decisions at Apple. I know they recently released some sort of statement that Jobs was still running the show, but that was possibly only to placate the shareholders.

I had a boss once who was a kidney-pancreas transplant patient. He was back to work two weeks after the transplants. Why? Because getting people as active as possible is found to be one of the best treatments helping such patients survive longer. I see the same thing for Jobs and I hope nobody ever questions his desire to do a good job. We all might see it differently but his motives are all in an effort to succeed and in many cases prove people wrong. Nothing wrong with that....

But I have to agree it's not right to question him in how he chooses to live his life. My only interest is the business decisions and how they could affect my use of the products.

thank you for answering me civilly xD; i thought everyone was going to hate me for that.
anyway, like i said in some other threads, i just wish that apple would sort out the geo restrictions before they implement this, at the very least. at the moment i don't have full access to the iBookstore, and the kindle app is how i surf for books on my ipod touch.

[RockdaMan]

I have not read everything in this thread, but I'll say this: Apple is milking the PR for all its worth. Soon they'll back down, uh, compromise.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

Having said that, I'm really curious about the idea of an Amazon iOS app store - that would require a lot more flexibility and openness on the part of Apple than I for one am used to seeing. Especially as it goes against one of the greatest strengths of a curated environment.

The problem is the OS doesn't allow arbitrary apps to run; that's why Apple doesn't do SD cards. To run arbitrary apps from an alternate market to run you have to jailbreak the iPxxx and then hope Apple doesn't strike back through a required app. (Like they're doing with iBooks--hardly required but already refusing to run properly on some liberated devices.) To set up an alternate app market for iOS (unlike Android) requires subverting Apple's OS and its terms of service. Legally actionable as well as unethical. It won't happen.

Trying to sidestep the rules isn't worth it. Not for Amazon, not for Kobo, not for B&N.
Their apps run fine today.
They shouldn't spend one red cent to change them or fight Apple on Apple's terms.

The iPxxx gadgets are package deals.
Apple wants it to be all or nothing, well give it to them.
Give them nothing.
It *is* their platform, and the customers *are* Apple's customers.
Apple thinks they *own* their customers and can rent them out for their regular 30% tax.
They think their customers will do whatever they say (insert metaphor of your choice) and will swallow whatever they dish out.

Why not find out if they will?
Again: do nothing. Let the chips fall where they will.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

I personally think that if anything can kill this it's going to be the 3000 item limit.

Having said that, I'm really curious about the idea of an Amazon iOS app store - that would require a lot more flexibility and openness on the part of Apple than I for one am used to seeing. Especially as it goes against one of the greatest strengths of a curated environment.

I don't like curated environments, but they do have strengths.

You couldn't use that iPS store without hacking your iThingie, so it might as well not exist.

And Amazon isn't working on an iOS store; they're working on an Android app store.