I can’t get the logic of this. There is an installed base of millions of iPhone and iPod Touch users: why not release the iBook app for those devices? I can buy books from Amazon’s Kindle app on my iPhone, who seem to be Apple’s chief competitor in this arena.
Surely it would help in negotiations with publishers (who are being pulled between Amazon and Apple) if they could point to sales from iPhone/iPod Touch users, and possibly even Mac users as well?
There are two possible explanations that I can think of. One, Apple are trying to use the iBook app as bait, so that existing iPhone users will buy the iPad as well. I don’t believe this: Apple always seem to play the long game. Which feeds into my second theory: That Mr Jobs just doesn’t think that reading a book on your iPhone is a compelling enough experience, and he doesn’t want to give people the opportunity to dismiss ebooks as a result.
I have no idea, of course. But I can’t imagine any other company that would deny themselves the sales: with one free download they could sell a lot of ebooks.
