Apple: 1 million new iBooks customers each week since iOS 8 launch

[Lin2412]

iBooks has averaged one million new customers every week since mid-September.

Keith Moerer, the director of iBooks at Apple, revealed that statistic in a rare public appearance at the Digital Book World conference in New York City on Thursday. It’s startling to anyone who dismisses Apple as an also-ran in the ebook market and might encourage publishers and authors who haven’t focused on the platform to begin doing so.

...Another difference between the iBooks and Amazon is that Apple doesn’t charge publishers to promote their books on its site. “One hundred percent of our merchandising is editorially focused. We accept no co-op payments, no pay for placement,” Moerer said

(Original Article From Gigaom)
(related)

[Lin2412]

Another take on Apple's current feat:
Apple's Latest Plan To End Amazon's E-Book Dominance Is Showing Progress

Apple’s phablet-sized iPhone 6 Plus may also be encouraging customers to try iBooks.

Moerer said at a conference on Thursday that the company was seeing more people downloading books on their phones since the latest iPhones came out.

This is some positive news for Apple’s ambitions in e-books. In 2013, the company lost the first round of an antitrust lawsuit that alleged it conspired with publishers to fix the price of electronic books at a higher price than Amazon had been selling them for. A federal judge ended Apple’s alleged price-fixing and forced the company to pay a $US840 million fine.

(Business Insider)

[pwalker8]

It depends on what one million new customers per week actually means. If it's people downloading a free ebook to see what it's like, that's one thing. If it's actual new customers buying ebooks from Apple, then we may see a shift in market share. Of course, if an iPhone 6 is big enough to read on via iBook, it's also big enough to read on via the Kindle app.

Kind of amusing reading two very different spins on the same piece of news. Well, at least Business Insider disclosed that the owner of Amazon is one of their investors at the end of the piece.

[frahse]

Technology aside, it is nice to see people reading.

[Jessica Lares]

Originally Posted by frahse

Technology aside, it is nice to see people reading.

Yeah!

I still have yet to spend any money on anything from the iBookstore, but some developers have submitted their free manuals to it. It's nice to open an app, and then get a button pointing me to them. There's also some companion iTunes U stuff in there. Maybe one day I'll do it, I just like the flexibility DRM-less stuff gives me.

[murg]

It's a million people a week turning on their new Apple whatevers, and automatically getting an iBooks account.

[hardcastle]

Originally Posted by murg

It's a million people a week turning on their new Apple whatevers, and automatically getting an iBooks account.

Yeah not to be overly cynical, but what exactly constitutes as an "iBooks customer?"

[thewitt]

Originally Posted by murg

It's a million people a week turning on their new Apple whatevers, and automatically getting an iBooks account.

There are more than a million new Apple "whatevers" sold every week, so this doesn't work.

[JSWolf]

iOS 8 comes with iBooks (unfortunately) and there is no way to delete it.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

It depends on what one million new customers per week actually means. If it's people downloading a free ebook to see what it's like, that's one thing.

It's probably people downloading a free book - this would be consistent with some of their earlier announcements in which they've talked about how many books were downloaded, but not how many books were bought.

[FizzyWater]

If I remember correctly, there was a lot of similar hyperbole about how many people were become Sony ebook shoppers - when most of them were downloading the 100 free public-domain books that came with their new Sony Reader.

[linereader]

Keith Moerer, the director of iBooks at Apple, revealed that statistic in a rare public appearance at the Digital Book World conference in New York City on Thursday. It’s startling to anyone who dismisses Apple as an also-ran in the ebook market and might encourage publishers and authors who haven’t focused on the platform to begin doing so. (And that was probably one of the main reasons that Apple agreed to appear at the conference.)
~~~
filed under "deceptive PR exercises"

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by murg

It's a million people a week turning on their new Apple whatevers, and automatically getting an iBooks account.

That sounds about right. Otherwise, why didn't they get these "customers" before iOS 8 was released?

[thewitt]

Originally Posted by rcentros

That sounds about right. Otherwise, why didn't they get these "customers" before iOS 8 was released?

They will sell 50,000,000 new iPhones in the quarter, and more than half of these typically go to new Apple customers.

They are not counting new iBooks installations, they are counting first time iBooks downloads.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by linereader

Keith Moerer, the director of iBooks at Apple, revealed that statistic in a rare public appearance at the Digital Book World conference in New York City on Thursday. It’s startling to anyone who dismisses Apple as an also-ran in the ebook market and might encourage publishers and authors who haven’t focused on the platform to begin doing so. (And that was probably one of the main reasons that Apple agreed to appear at the conference.)
~~~
filed under "deceptive PR exercises"

I've read a couple of articles about iBooks & Apple and how some smaller publishers find Apple better to deal with from the stand point of being willing to do the sort of things that smaller publishers find valuable. My impression is that Apple is currently laying the ground work for what they plan to do once they are out from under Cote's thumb.

The primary thing that keeps me from buying from the iBook store is DRM. Until I can easily format switch the eBooks that I purchase, I'll go with a store where I can. The iBookStore does have some issues, but it has gotten better since the last time I looked at it. It still doesn't have the selection that Amazon has of books that I might legitimately be interested in. On the other hand, it also doesn't have the pages and pages of drek that I have to wade through with Amazon.

The two bookstores have very different approaches to selling ebooks. That's a good thing. Competition is what forces people to re-evaluate and improve.