Still No iBookstore for iPad in Australia
It looks like Apple's iBookstore is going to be chockablock with e-books when it goes live in the US on April 3. I've still got my fingers crossed that Apple will also launch the iBookstore in Australia, when the iPad is available to buy online here in late April, but I'm not holding my breath!
The NYTimes.com is reporting that the iBookstore is getting larger, as we get closer to the release of the iPad in the US. The article 'Apple Adds 2 Publishers to Its Store for E-Books', indicates that Apple has just signed up two more book publishers for their iBookstore, Perseus Books Group and Workman Publishing. According to NYTimes.com, this would mean that there will now be 7 publishers, with electronic books in the iBookstore in the US.
I mentioned before in a previous article -- Apple iPad Australia Release Confirmed -- that iBooks is one of the main reasons I'm going to buy an iPad, and that's still the case. The iTunes store helped me rediscover music, and I'm betting that the iBookstore is going to do the same for books.
The iBookstore is part of the new iBooks app, that will be available to download free in the App Store. The iBooks app is an ebook reader for the iPad, with a virtual bookshelf displaying all your ebooks, which flips around to reveal the iBookstore, where you can browse and purchase new books.
The iBooks app uses the popular ePub open book format. There are thousands of free ePub books available online, which you'll be able to add to iTunes, and then sync to the iBooks app on your iPad. I searched for 'free ePub books' in Google, and the top result was epubbooks.com. You can download heaps of free ebooks here, and I also found a really interesting article in their blog: The Apple iPad and ePub Books.
It's interesting to note that Amazon.com is also planning to launch their own free Kindle ebook app for the iPad (I heard about this first on TheAppleBlog), but they do not use the open ePub books format -- although there are some free Kindle books available. According to the 'Amazon Kindle Apps for Tablet Computers' page, there will be more than 450,000 Kindle books available -- although they do say that availability may vary for non-US customers.
Amazon released their Kindle for iPhone app back in December 2009, although I'm not sure I fancy reading an ebook on my iPhone! Just recently they also released their Kindle for Mac application, another free app that you can download from Amazon.com.
It would be fantastic if the iBooks app is available when the iPad launches in Australia next month, but even if it isn't, I'm still very excited about getting my hands on a brand spanking new piece of gorgeous Apple technology!
Verified Store Page: Apple Store
Verified Store Page: iTunes Store
