Kobo's iPad app allows instant purchasing
As the leading UK ebook retailer I expected Waterstone’s would be racing to get their brand on the iPad (and the Android devices set to follow it) with an ereader/store app so they could offer customers a UK alternative to Amazon’s Kindle and Apple’s iBooks.
Months have gone by and still there’s no ebook app. Last month the retailer launched an iPhone shopping app for physical books, the footnotes of which promise news on an ebook app “soon” but it’s yet to materialise.
To be honest I’ve been pretty frustrated by whole thing because I LIKE Waterstone’s. They have a decent range of books and my local stores are clean, well presented and staffed by polite, smart, intelligent people who go out of their way to engage with and help customers. Oh, and I get loyalty points for buying from that rarest of beasts – a store I actually enjoy shopping in.
Thankfully during the wait for a Waterstone’s app txtr updated their app to work on the iPad which allowed me to read the books I’d bought from Waterstone’s on my shiny new device.
I could of course have bought more from Waterstone’s and used txtr’s website to download them to the iPad but it’s a lot more convenient to use an app which downloads new book straight to the iPad. For that reason all of my new purchases have gone to Kobo.
Not only does Kobo already have an app, I can download the raw ePub files from their website to store safely on my Sony reader should I ever want to use them on it. From my point of view it’s an easy win in my favour.
But much as I WANTED to buy from Waterstone’s, over the last couple of days I realised my NEED for an app from them has now passed. I’ve read all the books I’d already bought from them and have more books from Kobo than I do from Waterstone’s.
This means I’m now considerably less bothered about when my favourite High Street book retailer finally comes to the iPad – my default action when buying a new ebook is to go to straight to Kobo.
When that Waterstone’s app finally arrives I’ll have a play but it’s going to have to offer something pretty amazing to recapture my interests. If it lets me load in all my existing books regardless of where I’ve bought them it might just have sufficient edge to recapture my ebook purchases, but short of that it’s difficult to see what would make me change back.
It’s the use of Adobe DRM that’s causing the delay. Is the Txtr app actually using Adobe DRM? That’d be news and a first. You’ve also confirmed for me why Kobo will be around awhile too. Thanks.
Hi Mike, yes the txtr app allows you to upload your Adobe DRM protected files to a ‘vault’ on their website (txtr.com) and then download them into the app. You need to enter your Adobe DRM ID into the app to be able to open the books.
It’s not a ‘pretty’ app and it lacks a UK store (there’s a German store built-in) but it at least allows you to read your existing books and, if you want, to buy from multiple sellers.
I think a separate app for each bookseller is the wrong way to go. It’s just pollution of the App space. One standard application, possibly with some kind of plug-in structure (maybe only a list of links) for buying books at a specific shop would be much better IMHO. Do you have separate book cases for the different publishers or bookshops in your house?
The txtr app has been able to handle ePub files wrapped in Adobe DRM since February 2010 and was indeed the first iPhone app to do so. It was updated for the iPad in August 2010.
Waterstones has so far not shown any serious interest in launching its own version of an ebook app although txr has widely licensed its app with several white label versions about to be launched across Europe (see news at Frankfurt book fair) and Waterstones presumably had the option to do so as well.
It is also worth noting that it would not be commercially viable for a developer to launch a general purpose iPhone ereader (with Adobe DRM support) with a plug-in structure. The software developer would have to pay the annual Adobe fee (in the vicinity of £100,000 per year) without any way of monetizing his efforts.
Adobe DRM however allows for books to be easily moved from one application to another.
I agree with Piet that having diffirent readers is the wrong way to go. Having different applications for buying books is a good idea, but the customer should be able to use the same reader for all books that use the same type of DRM. I am not concerned about ebooks from Amazon, B&N and Apple as I would never contemplate buying from them while they use their own DRM. DRM will anyway soon be a thing of the past.
Hi Jorgen
When we interviewed Andrew (see above comment) he predicted DRM would be “transient” – I hope that’s the case!
http://www.ebookmagazine.co.uk/interview-txtrs-andrew-rhomberg/2010864
Waterstones have now stopped giving rewards points on eBooks and eReaders. I would have thought that being such a large bookseller they’d want to be at the forefront of the revolution. I’ve moved to buying eBooks from Kobo as the purchase is quick and easy. Shame on Waterstones for having such contempt for their customers.