Apple to require iBooks 'interest-age' for children, teens by June
To aid with content discovery and on its iBookstore, Apple will be requiring publishers to assign an "interest-age" to e-books distributed to children, teens and young adults, including titles tagged as "educational."
As Apple moves forward with its iBooks education initiative, the digital storefront is reaching an entirely new audience of young readers. This is especially true given the company's 2013 iTunes rules revision that allows pre-teens to open an account for educational purposes.
In a notice sent out through iTunes Connect, provided by AppleInsider reader Gregg, Apple informed publishers and developers that interest age information will be a required asset for all book deliveries in Juvenile Fiction; Children's, Young Adult, and Educational; and Jeunesse. The rule will be implemented from June 2014.
No explanation was given as to the interest-age addition, though it can be speculated that Apple is looking to direct young readers to age-appropriate content.
Also mentioned was the expansion of textbook availability to 51 territories served by iBooks. Apple announced the educational push into Asia, Latin America and Europe last month The service announcement came two years after Apple first launched its digital textbook initiative, which sought to transform the iPad into a dynamic learning tool.
As Apple moves forward with its iBooks education initiative, the digital storefront is reaching an entirely new audience of young readers. This is especially true given the company's 2013 iTunes rules revision that allows pre-teens to open an account for educational purposes.
In a notice sent out through iTunes Connect, provided by AppleInsider reader Gregg, Apple informed publishers and developers that interest age information will be a required asset for all book deliveries in Juvenile Fiction; Children's, Young Adult, and Educational; and Jeunesse. The rule will be implemented from June 2014.
No explanation was given as to the interest-age addition, though it can be speculated that Apple is looking to direct young readers to age-appropriate content.
Also mentioned was the expansion of textbook availability to 51 territories served by iBooks. Apple announced the educational push into Asia, Latin America and Europe last month The service announcement came two years after Apple first launched its digital textbook initiative, which sought to transform the iPad into a dynamic learning tool.
Comments
Hill60 is right. The rules are ridiculous. Claiming that each contract with the major publishers must be negotiated serially (one after the other) to prevent something sneaky from happening must rank among the most absurd punishments ever issued by a federal court. There's a lot of gossip in Manhattan. Those negotiating the second will know the terms of the first etc. If secrecy were the rationale, the court would have required all to be negotiated in secret at the same time.
But, of course, the purpose is to do something else. Apple hasn't done anything wrong. A company with a 0% marketshare (at the time) can't price fix. The purpose is to aid Amazon by crippling its primary opponent and to weaken the more powerful publishers, the ones best able to stand up to Amazon. What else would you expect when both our president and attorney general are from Chicago? The very essence of Chicago-machine politics is to use the machinery of government to reward contributors by crushing their competitors. Obama spent 20 years in Chicago politics without discomfiting even a crooked meter maid. There's not a bat's chance in hell he's an honest politician. As some might put it, it's more likely for the madam in a house of prostitution to be a virgin.
Apple wasn't price fixing. As anyone who has published through the iBookstore knows, Apple makes no effort to influence ebook pricing. The royalties are the same 70% from $0.99 to $199.99. It's Amazon that uses royalties to fix prices. Only for books in the $2.99 to $9.99 range does it pay the industry standard 70%. And even there it's outrageous download fees (over 5x cellular charges) lower the real rate to around 50-55%. And outside that range Amazon only pays a miserly 35%.
My own calculations suggest that Amazon is earning about twice what Apple earns per ebook sold and take note that every penny of that added profit comes out of the pockets of authors and publishers. It's using its dominant market share to cheat them. That's why Amazon is so eager to crush its competitors. And note too that starving authors harms the books that you and I get to read. It means fewer good books and less variety. Books you'd like to read will never be.
And that's all because of Amazon, aided and abetted by the Obama administration DOJ.
Oh, and I forgot to mention one most relevant fact. There was a law firm that put the DOJ onto Apple and the major publishers. Do you know where their offices are located? Not just in Seattle, home of Amazon, but in Seattle's South Lake Union area an easy 10 minute walk away from Amazon's corporate headquarters. Suspicion? You ought to be.
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Quote: "I wonder how many years it will take to negotiate this with each publisher under the draconian guidelines Apple has to operate under due to the DoJ's witch hunt and kangaroo court."
Hill60 is right. The rules are ridiculous. Claiming that each contract with the major publishers must be negotiated serially (one after the other) to prevent something sneaky from happening must rank among the most absurd punishments ever issued by a federal court. There's a lot of gossip in Manhattan. Those negotiating the second will know the terms of the first etc. If secrecy were the rationale, the court would have required all to be negotiated in secret at the same time.
But, of course, the purpose is to do something else. Apple hasn't done anything wrong. A company with a 0% marketshare (at the time) can't price fix. The purpose is to aid Amazon by crippling its primary opponent and to weaken the more powerful publishers, the ones best able to stand up to Amazon. What else would you expect when both our president and attorney general are from Chicago? The very essence of Chicago-machine politics is to use the machinery of government to reward contributors by crushing their competitors. Obama spent 20 years in Chicago politics without discomfiting even a crooked meter maid. There's not a bat's chance in hell he's an honest politician. As some might put it, it's more likely for the madam in a house of prostitution to be a virgin.
Apple wasn't price fixing. As anyone who has published through the iBookstore knows, Apple makes no effort to influence ebook pricing. The royalties are the same 70% from $0.99 to $199.99. It's Amazon that uses royalties to fix prices. Only for books in the $2.99 to $9.99 range does it pay the industry standard 70%. And even there it's outrageous download fees (over 5x cellular charges) lower the real rate to around 50-55%. And outside that range Amazon only pays a miserly 35%.
My own calculations suggest that Amazon is earning about twice what Apple earns per ebook sold and take note that every penny of that added profit comes out of the pockets of authors and publishers. It's using its dominant market share to cheat them. That's why Amazon is so eager to crush its competitors. And note too that starving authors harms the books that you and I get to read. It means fewer good books and less variety. Books you'd like to read will never be.
And that's all because of Amazon, aided and abetted by the Obama administration DOJ.
Oh, and I forgot to mention one most relevant fact. There was a law firm that put the DOJ onto Apple and the major publishers. Do you know where their offices are located? Not just in Seattle, home of Amazon, but in Seattle's South Lake Union area an easy 10 minute walk away from Amazon's corporate headquarters. Suspicion? You ought to be.
What a prejudicial crock of horse crap. Sell your slop somewhere else.