Apple Attracts One Million Weekly iBooks Users with iOS 8 Integration
Opinions differ on which devices are used more for reading. Enthusiastic users of dedicated reading devices swear by the advantages of eBook readers, but many surveys often present a different picture, showing that more or more frequent reading happens on tablets and smartphones.
This is understandable, at least to some extent, as these two types of devices are often always on hand, allowing you to conveniently read on the go without an additional E-Ink device. However, for avid readers, there’s still no substitute for the power-saving, eye-friendly eReader that can be read at any time. Even though the growth in sales of dedicated reading devices declined in 2014, in absolute numbers, more eBook readers were sold than in previous years—at least if past projections are to be believed—current analyses for the past year are not yet available.
In any case, the development of smartphones and tablets shows that digital reading is far from reaching its peak but is still evolving. As Apple announced at DBW 2015 (Digital Book World Conference), it was able to increase the user numbers of its in-house eBook program by 1 million weekly since the integration of the iBooks app into the mobile Apple operating system iOS 8.
Multi-Platform Strategy as a Safeguard for the Future
Apple continues to see growth opportunities in virtually all important book markets, with the Japanese market apparently booming. This might also be due to the better display and navigation of manga on tablets, where dedicated reading devices often present some disadvantages.
It remains unclear, however, what the revenue from iBooks looks like and how many eBooks Apple can actually sell. It’s quite possible that new customers often start the application just to test it and initially only acquire free eBooks. In the past, Apple has often emphasized that it can report stable growth rates, but ultimately the company has always been relatively reserved when it comes to concrete success stories.
In any case, with the increased use of the smartphone and tablet application on Apple, it becomes clear that a comprehensive digital multi-platform strategy for the rest of the eBook providers (Amazon, Tolino, Kobo, PocketBook …) is certainly not a mistake in the long run. This is undoubtedly a significant reason why Amazon aggressively promotes its Fire offerings and why the Tolino Alliance, after the presumably modest success of the first tablets, has introduced a new (very good!) device to the market.
Moreover, there are good chances that the two device classes, eReaders and tablets, will eventually merge in the future if a screen provider (e.g., Japan Display, Qualcomm Mirasol, Liquavista, IRX Innovations) can further improve the power-saving, sunlight-readable color displays so that they offer the promised benefits for practical everyday use and enable excellent multimedia displays and eBook presentations alike.
