Random House books come to Apple's iBookstore for iPad, iPhone

Posted:
in iPad edited January 2014
Days after publisher Random House announced it would adopt the agency model for e-book sales, content from the world's largest consumer trade publisher -- including "The Da Vinci Code" -- began appearing on Apple's iBookstore.



Content from Random House began populating the iBooks application on Wednesday, just hours before Apple is set to unveil its second-generation iPad. Some rumors have suggested that the new device will have an improved display with superior anti-reflective properties, allowing for easier reading of content like e-books in sunlight.



When the iBooks application launched last April, Random House was the most noteworthy absence from Apple's new digital storefront. Other major publishers, including HarperCollins, Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan and Simon & Schuster made their content available from day one.



Random House's content is able to be sold on the iBookstore now because the world's largest publisher announced on Monday that it had adopted the "agency mode" for e-book sales in the U.S. That model allows Random House to set consumer prices for e-books it publishes, and provides retailers with a commission for each sale.



Apple takes a 30 percent cut of all content sold on the iBookstore, just as the company does with applications sold on the App Store. Random House content was previously available on the iPad only through the Amazon Kindle application and separate storefront.







Apple's agency approach allows publishers to set the prices paid by consumers. Random House executives were concerned that adopting the agency model would lead to considerably lower prices and profits.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    asciiascii Posts: 5,936member
    I prefer the iBooks reader to the Kindle one but since Kindle is on my Mac and iPad I buy from them. Actually I prefer to read paper books, I mainly buy digital copies after I've read the paper one to allow for keyword searching of memorable passages, which is why having it on the computer is useful, because it's not all about having a book-like device.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    bcahill009bcahill009 Posts: 163member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ascii View Post


    I prefer the iBooks reader to the Kindle one but since Kindle is on my Mac and iPad I buy from them. Actually I prefer to read paper books, I mainly buy digital copies after I've read the paper one to allow for keyword searching of memorable passages, which is why having it on the computer is useful, because it's not all about having a book-like device.



    Which is why so many people are still wondering why it's (ibooks) not on the mac app store yet.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    dave k.dave k. Posts: 1,306member
    $9.99 for a old book. Please...
  • Reply 4 of 12
    stuffestuffe Posts: 394member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by bcahill009 View Post


    Which is why so many people are still wondering why it's (ibooks) not on the mac app store yet.



    I think that for me it's because having Kindle on every device known to man is straightforward, sensible and simple for Amazon to accomplish. It takes little effort, and if it rakes in an extra 1% of sales it's probably worth it. But reading extended text on a monitor is not something I enjoy, although with the iPad at least I can basically recline and slouch how I would with a real book - I can't do that with my iMac. So Amazon do it because they can, not because it's particularly required. I can see it being more useful for browsing the catalogue and downloading perhaps. I'm in no rush to see iBooks on Mac, even though I prefer it to Kindle on the iPad (mainly because of the dumb screen dim controls in Kindle, which they may have fixed now, but it's too late, I'm not splitting my collection over multiple libraries)
  • Reply 5 of 12
    matrix07matrix07 Posts: 1,993member
    And now I see The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo at last.
  • Reply 6 of 12
    jd_in_sbjd_in_sb Posts: 1,600member
    Random House is late to the party but at least they made it. Prices will be high at first but market forces should bring them down.
  • Reply 7 of 12
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Apple takes a 30 percent cut of all content sold on the iBookstore



    I have all three installed on my iPad - iBooks, Kindle and Nook and it was my expierence with iBooks - either the book I'm interested in is not available on iBooks, or it is significantly more expensive than the same on Amazon, for example - one I just bought (for Kindle of course) - http://www.amazon.com/Multicore-Appl...dp/B004C04QEA/ - $32. Same on iBooks - $40 - I guess it is that Apple 30% cut factored in ;-)
  • Reply 8 of 12
    Finally! I can read "Decision Points" in extra large type!
  • Reply 9 of 12
    _hawkeye__hawkeye_ Posts: 139member
    We can infer from this that Steve Jobs won't be presenting at today's iPad 2 unveiling? or that somebody goofed. If Steve were running the show, he'd want to make this announcement himself. The cat's out of the bag now. Not very Steve-ish.



    Of course that doesn't preclude him from making an appearance; just that it's unlikely he'll be running the whole show.



    Naturally, i hope i'm wrong about this, but the tea leaves are quite unambiguous.
  • Reply 10 of 12
    mjtomlinmjtomlin Posts: 2,673member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by dimitrir View Post


    I have all three installed on my iPad - iBooks, Kindle and Nook and it was my expierence with iBooks - either the book I'm interested in is not available on iBooks, or it is significantly more expensive than the same on Amazon, for example - one I just bought (for Kindle of course) - http://www.amazon.com/Multicore-Appl...dp/B004C04QEA/ - $32. Same on iBooks - $40 - I guess it is that Apple 30% cut factored in ;-)



    Amazon charges 30% as well, so not sure why it would be more expensive on iBooks. In fact, at $32, Amazon could be taking as much 70% to sell it.
  • Reply 11 of 12
    poochpooch Posts: 768member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    [...] including "The Da Vinci Code" [...]



    phew. i can rest easy, now.
  • Reply 12 of 12
    penchantedpenchanted Posts: 1,070member
    I wonder if Jobs got this deal done while he was on leave. He said he would be involved in strategic stuff while on leave and getting RH into the IBookstore is a pretty big deal.
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