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paidContent reports that Apple is looking to increase the visibility of its iBookstore by participating in the upcoming BookExpo America trade show with a booth in a "prime location" on the exhibit floor. The booth marks Apple's first appearance at the event and a rare appearance by the company at a third-party trade show, especially since its effort to essentially eliminate such participation that culminated in the company exiting Macworld Expo several years ago.
The company has a large booth in a prime location, next door to Scholastic and in the same area as major publishers including Random House, Disney (NYSE: DIS) Book Group and Macmillan. BEA's website notes that Apple will be represented by Scott Simpson from Apple's iBookstore.
Apple is not expected to make any particular product or service announcements at the conference, and is likely attending simply to raise its profile in the e-book market as it seeks to grow share competing against such major players as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Update: A BEA representative has clarified with paidContent that Apple will not be exhibiting publicly at BookExpo America, only meeting privately with publishers at the event. Apple continues to be listed on the BEA site as an "exhibitor", but other details promoting the company's presence have been removed.
Top Rated Comments
Lower prices... when I can buy the Kindle version of a book (that I can read in the Kindle app on my iPad) from Amazon for 30% less than in the iBookstore... I won't be buying many (if any) books through the iBookstore
- iBooks needs to be readable on the desktop.
- The need to add content.
- They need to competitive with their pricing.
If Apple begins selling standard format ePub books, that I can interchange between my eReader an iPad and an iPhone, I think that the iBookstore would do better.
Apple has been an evil force in the ebooks market.
Oh, and what happened to Steve Jobs' "Nobody reads anymore...?"
(I do like eInk much better for pure reading - I don't read at all on my iPad anymore).
Amazon has been very vocal in opposing the agency model, and here in the UK and EU it's under investigation as being anti-competitive.
Due to its questionable legal status, and some publishers not liking the model overall, not ALL publishers use it (those that don't use it aren't allowed on the iBookstore)
For those publishers that do not use the model, Amazon's pricing is generally much lower than its competitors.
To say that Apple doesn't set the price is true, but it's not really showing the whole picture - it was their idea to let publishers set the price in the first place.
Amazon never adds fees for delivery.