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Apple iPad Takes on Kindle With iBooks Store

by Terrence O'Brien on January 27, 2010 at 02:35 PM


Apple is never one to sit on the sidelines of any market niche for too long, so it's no surprise that it envisions the iPad as not just a Web-browsing device or over-sized iPod touch, but as an entry into the over-saturated e-book reader market, as well. To that end, Apple has unveiled the iBooks Store, a "print " media companion to the iTunes store loaded with publications from Harper Collins, Penguin, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Hachett. The shopping experience looks incredibly similar to its musical predecessor, and, while prices vary, most books in the brief preview appear to be priced between $12.99 and $14.99.

The interface mimics a bookshelf, displaying book covers on wood-themed shelves. Employing the same aesthetic, the reading app includes such subtle (and questionable) eye-candy as shadows where the "page" bends to meet the "binding." It's strangely similar to a previous library managing app Delicious Library.

If any company has the resources to take on the Kindle and its well-established e-book store, it's Apple. Still, we'll have to get a better idea of the e-book prices and the cost of the iPad to truly pass judgment.

Update: Well prices are in, and the iPad will be fetching $499 at the low-end (16GB of storage and no 3G) and scaling all the way up to $829 (AT&T 3G and 64GB), plus if you want to download books from anywhere you'll have to cough up for a monthly data plan starting at $14.99.

Tags: apple, breaking news, BreakingNews, e-books, ibooks, ibooks store, IbooksStore, ipad, top

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