Apple lands exclusive digital access to enhanced Harry Potter series on iBooks

Posted:
in iPad edited October 2015
Enhanced editions of all seven books in the blockbuster "Harry Potter" series, featuring the original text with interactive animations and elaborate artwork, are now available exclusively on the iBooks Store, Apple announced on Thursday.




J.K. Rowling's iconic series also comes to life in unique, new ways with annotations written by the author herself. The enhanced iBooks editions also include exclusive custom covers for each title, and typography including the custom Harry Potter typefaces, as well as new section headers and drop caps

Previously, digital versions of the Potter series were only available through the Pottermore shop. All seven titles are available here:



"I'm thrilled to see the Harry Potter books so beautifully realised on iBooks for the digital world; the artwork and animations in these enhanced editions bring the stories alive in a delightful new way," said J.K. Rowling.

The Harry Potter Enhanced Editions are available today in English for $9.99 each in 32 countries. Preorders are available for French, German and Spanish editions, set to launch Nov. 9 in 18 more countries.




"Harry Potter fans are going to love how their favorite stories come to life," Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said. "J.K. Rowling's legendary series is perfect for enjoying on your iPad or iPhone and we're thrilled to offer them exclusively on the iBooks Store."

Apple's iBooks platform is available on both iOS and Mac. The iBooks Store is in 52 countries, offering titles across dozens of categories, including history books, biographies, picture books, and children's books.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    Very cool for Apple and a win for iBooks, which I think doesn't get much exposure.

    I'm not a Harry Potter fan (at all, I'm probably just too old) but I hope this brings more attention to iBooks in general. And not in a government scrutiny type of way.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    The ebook situation of the Potter series has been a disaster up until this point, so it's nice to see more more openness here.
  • Reply 3 of 12
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member

    An Apple ‘exclusive’!? Did Michael Bromwich approve this? Will Judge Cote punish Apple for this blatant anti-trust action. Shouldn’t Apple’s victim, Amazon, be given first rights to these books?

  • Reply 4 of 12
    I smell a lawsuit.
  • Reply 5 of 12
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by IHateScreenNames View Post



    Very cool for Apple and a win for iBooks, which I think doesn't get much exposure.



    I'm not a Harry Potter fan (at all, I'm probably just too old) but I hope this brings more attention to iBooks in general. And not in a government scrutiny type of way.



    You're never too old for Harry Potter

  • Reply 6 of 12
    gtrgtr Posts: 3,231member
    lkrupp wrote: »
    An Apple ‘exclusive’!? Did Michael BROOMWITCH approve this? Will Judge Cote punish Apple for this blatant anti-trust action. Shouldn’t Apple’s victim, Amazon, be given first rights to these books?

    Fixed that for you.
  • Reply 7 of 12
    radarthekatradarthekat Posts: 3,842moderator

    I wonder if Apple can lever its ability to create highly interactive mainstream ebooks as a way to cut into Amazon's ebook market.  Can any of the 10's of millions of simple Kindle readers (Paperwhite, for example) run these animations, present text in multiple fonts, etc?  Can the Kindle app do that?  I'm asking because it's been years since I've even had the Kindle app installed on any of my iOS devices.  It would be interesting to see Apple leverage it's ebook authoring and presentation, typically used for educational textbooks, for more mainstream books and novels like the Harry Potter series.  Especially if Amazon can't follow.

  • Reply 8 of 12
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    They should look nice on the new iPad Pro.
  • Reply 9 of 12
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by johnnyb0731 View Post

     



    You're never too old for Harry Potter




    By saying "too old" I'm just trying to be gracious to legitimate Harry Potter fans.  If I mention how I really feel those fans get pretty upset.

     

    I was wondering about Kindle, et al, as well.  Does anyone else know if the kind of animations and artwork on iBooks are available on other platforms?

  • Reply 10 of 12
    This is awesome. The wife will love this!
  • Reply 11 of 12
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by RadarTheKat View Post

     

    I wonder if Apple can lever its ability to create highly interactive mainstream ebooks as a way to cut into Amazon's ebook market.  Can any of the 10's of millions of simple Kindle readers (Paperwhite, for example) run these animations, present text in multiple fonts, etc?  Can the Kindle app do that?  I'm asking because it's been years since I've even had the Kindle app installed on any of my iOS devices.  It would be interesting to see Apple leverage it's ebook authoring and presentation, typically used for educational textbooks, for more mainstream books and novels like the Harry Potter series.  Especially if Amazon can't follow.




    The "Making Of" series of the Star Wars OT were released with interactive content on iBooks and on Kindle.One of the low rated reviews (1 star) for the physical copies of the books on Amazon are complaints about how the Interactive versions on Kindle are piss-poor when compared to the iBooks versions.

     

    So I think Amazon can release these on Kindle, but I'm not sure what keeps them for being as good as the iBooks stuff. Of course, I'm only basing this on the Star Wars books. 

     

    Edit: Corrected the beginning since when I checked again on Amazon, there were only 1 or 2 reviews describing how bad the Android versions of the interactive books were.

  • Reply 12 of 12
    Very cool for Apple and a win for iBooks, which I think doesn't get much exposure.


    I'm not a Harry Potter fan (at all, I'm probably just too old) but I hope this brings more attention to iBooks in general. And not in a government scrutiny type of way.


    You're never too old for Harry Potter

    Trust me, it's inevitable...
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