Kindle adds 'Get Book' buy button to where it always belonged

AppleInsider

Amazon is the latest developer to take advantage of Apple's court-mandated App Store changes, and has finally made it possible to buy books directly in the iPhone Kindle app.

Kindle books can now be bought directly in the iOS app -- in the US, at least.

It's generally been Spotify that's thrown up its arms and claimed Apple won't let it on the App Store, when really it means Apple wouldn't let it on for free. Now that Apple has been forced to allow it and all US developers on for nothing, there has been a genuine improvement to one particular app.

As of now, or at least unless Apple loses its appeal against the ruling, the Kindle app on iPhone now works the way it always should have. You can browse the Amazon Kindle bookstore through it as ever, but now you are also offered a "Get Book" button.

Previously, and very tediously, you could browse all you like and you could even send a sample chapter or two to your iPhone. But you couldn't actually buy the book, not through the Kindle app.

Instead, making absolute sense, you had to buy it through the separate Amazon app.

On the same iPhone.

One part of Amazon got a deal with Apple to allow that without fees, another part didn't. So you had to use go to a different app to complete a purchase.

It was nonsensical except in the way that it made sense because you knew it was that Amazon would be damned if it paid Apple any money. Amazon is for earning cash, not for spending it.

And the thing is that we got used to it. So used to it that it might take a beat for you to even notice, but once you do, you'll never schlep back off to the regular Amazon app again.

One reason we got used to this jumping between apps, though, was because this is about books. Books already have razor-thin margins, with authors getting a few cents of the retail price.

Giving Apple 30% in theory means taking away money from the authors, although of course it isn't. It's taking profit away from Amazon, which has bludgeoned publisher prices down as far as it can go.

Authors seemingly don't matter to Amazon, and nor do publishers, and even nor do users. None of us seem to matter to the law either, since in 2013 the courts infamously blamed Apple for what was actually being done by every other publisher and platform.

Adding a "Get Book" button to the iOS Kindle app is great for all of us, but it has nothing to do with what's right for customers. Certainly it has nothing to do with what is right for the publishing industry.

Instead, it has solely happened because it doesn't cost Amazon anything more and it should get them some extra sales.

Apple definitely shot itself in the foot over its non-compliance with the original anti-steering ruling, and all you can say is that it aimed well. But still, Amazon, Spotify, and the rest now have free access to more than a billion potential customers.

And Apple, which created that iPhone market, gets nothing. It doesn't seem right, but then we're not corporations slugging it out over our respective bottom lines.



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9secondkox2

All this legislating from the bench will hopefully be dealt with before too long. In the meantime, it’s exposing these shady organizations (who make money from other being on their stores) as extortionists, only putting in work if they don’t pay to be in someone else’s store. 

It’s why I no longer have an Amazon subscription nor a Spotify one. It’s a matter of principle. Doesn’t alter my lifestyle at all. I’ve always found it healthier and have met lots of good people by always avoiding the card reader at the pump and the self-checkout at various retailers. Going to the human being at the register is the way to go. 

Apple Books are usually presented much nicer than kindle anyway. And Apple Music has inched closer to the old iTunes simplicity that Spotify copied to begin with. 

sitime

9secondkox2 said:

All this legislating from the bench will hopefully be dealt with before too long. In the meantime, it’s exposing these shady organizations (who make money from other being on their stores) as extortionists, only putting in work if they don’t pay to be in someone else’s store. 

It’s why I no longer have an Amazon subscription nor a Spotify one. It’s a matter of principle. Doesn’t alter my lifestyle at all. I’ve always found it healthier and have met lots of good people by always avoiding the card reader at the pump and the self-checkout at various retailers. Going to the human being at the register is the way to go. 

Apple Books are usually presented much nicer than kindle anyway. And Apple Music has inched closer to the old iTunes simplicity that Spotify copied to begin with. 

Apple does the same thing though, right? If I try to subscribe to Apple TV+ on my Fire TV, the message that pops-up says:

”How to Watch — In-app purchases aren’t allowed on this device. To watch here, you must have subscribed to Apple TV+ on an Apple device.”

mike1

9secondkox2 said:

All this legislating from the bench will hopefully be dealt with before too long. In the meantime, it’s exposing these shady organizations (who make money from other being on their stores) as extortionists, only putting in work if they don’t pay to be in someone else’s store. 

It’s why I no longer have an Amazon subscription nor a Spotify one. It’s a matter of principle. Doesn’t alter my lifestyle at all. I’ve always found it healthier and have met lots of good people by always avoiding the card reader at the pump and the self-checkout at various retailers. Going to the human being at the register is the way to go. 

Apple Books are usually presented much nicer than kindle anyway. And Apple Music has inched closer to the old iTunes simplicity that Spotify copied to begin with. 

To each his own, but I don't get it. Would anyone schlep all the way from the gas pump into the station, probably waste time on a line behind people who need to be there to pay cash or buy something, just to use a card anyway???

Personally, I use the self checkout whenever possible. I would rather checkout a cart full of groceries myself rather than unload on to a conveyor belt and then have the cashier ring  and bag it. It's faster and in most stores I get to ring up and bag it all the way I want.

jfreedle2

Amazon could have always done this, they just did not care about the user experience only their profit margin.

jfreedle2

SiTime said:

9secondkox2 said:

All this legislating from the bench will hopefully be dealt with before too long. In the meantime, it’s exposing these shady organizations (who make money from other being on their stores) as extortionists, only putting in work if they don’t pay to be in someone else’s store. 

It’s why I no longer have an Amazon subscription nor a Spotify one. It’s a matter of principle. Doesn’t alter my lifestyle at all. I’ve always found it healthier and have met lots of good people by always avoiding the card reader at the pump and the self-checkout at various retailers. Going to the human being at the register is the way to go. 

Apple Books are usually presented much nicer than kindle anyway. And Apple Music has inched closer to the old iTunes simplicity that Spotify copied to begin with. 

Apple does the same thing though, right? If I try to subscribe to Apple TV+ on my Fire TV, the message that pops-up says:

”How to Watch — In-app purchases aren’t allowed on this device. To watch here, you must have subscribed to Apple TV+ on an Apple device.”

Probably for the same reason that Amazon blocked in-app payments in the Kindle application. Of course having an Apple TV is so much better than a Fire TV.

entropys

Maybe country specific? No change to the app in Oz.
still has this message:

This app does not support purchasing. Books purchased from amazon are available to read in the kindle app.