Posted on 2013-Aug-01
Low Profile
In the fierce aftermath of losing the fight in eBook price-fixing case, there is hardly any newsworthy material from Cupertino-born Apple Inc. The Guardian article analyzes how Apple went too far to come up with “agency pricing” to basically raise the eBook prices according to the publisher’s need. The fear that Amazon was dominating the book market is believed to be their motivation to make that decision.
Price-fixing & DRM
These factors further complicated the matter when the publishers were trying to defend themselves by agreeing to raise prices. This is not the first time publishers desperately needed security measures to protect their assets. The writer begs the question why the publishers break the law yet fail to support a bookshop to maximize their book’s discoverability. DRM was the poster child of being a recipe for disaster when it was launched to destroy the reader’s trust.
New Support for Kindle for iOS
Somehow, Apple’s share of eReading devices users is still considered covetable among developers. Amazon continues to offer updates to court app users. The Verge wrote an article about the latest updates that allow the users of iPhone and iPad to search within Kindle for iOS app and download free samples of books. Unlike the former version, users had to switch to the web browser to do just that. Being able to search free samples in the Kindle for iOS app can make it easier for users to find new books.
Better Support of KF8
If these features are not exciting enough, The Digital Reader’s latest report will surely please your reading experience. One great thing about the updates is the better support of Amazon’s native format, KF8, that the screenshot shows how the text is wrapped around the colored box, hyperlink being displayed in dark cyan color rather than the frequently seen light blue and pictures being wrapped nicely around the text. One more added feature is how you can use your own dictionary to look up incomprehensible terms. With default dictionary, you might not be able to decipher all the jargons used in certain industries. I tested Kindle for Android and got stuck with the default dictionary.
Something to Think About
Although iOS users are the prime target of most developers including Amazon regardless of their market share decline this quarter, it remains inevitable that the verdict against Apple has little effect to jeopardize the usage of Apple products. Amazon bringing additional features of their eReading application can be seen as an example how significant the best customer’s experience is for tech companies as a whole. To download the Kindle for iOS version 3.9, you can visit iTunes and experiment all the updates in full glory. Happy reading!
Label: eBook Industry News
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