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Can't buy books with Nook app per Apple. Why?

This rule seems self-serving. Otherwise why have it. I still won't buy books from Apple. Also, this is a strike against iPhone.

Posted on Jul 27, 2011 8:22 PM

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Posted on Jul 27, 2011 8:45 PM

According to Barnes and Noble, Apple put a rule in place that does not allow the Nook app to order directly from the B & N bookstore. The only thing that makes sense to me is that Apple is trying to kill any competition for its own book app. I know I can order via the B & N site, but it won't be nearly as convenient. This is NOT a good move by Apple, and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Apple seems to be working hard to give users reasons to switch to Android phones....... After this, I absolutely won't buy any books from Apple.

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Jul 27, 2011 8:45 PM in response to cmt1989

According to Barnes and Noble, Apple put a rule in place that does not allow the Nook app to order directly from the B & N bookstore. The only thing that makes sense to me is that Apple is trying to kill any competition for its own book app. I know I can order via the B & N site, but it won't be nearly as convenient. This is NOT a good move by Apple, and it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Apple seems to be working hard to give users reasons to switch to Android phones....... After this, I absolutely won't buy any books from Apple.

Jul 27, 2011 8:54 PM in response to cmt1989

Apple put this "rule" in place long ago, what people were able to do was click a button that took you out of the app and to Safari to search the store and purchase (at least that is the way it worked with the Kindle app, I didn't have the Nook one). Sony's app was banned from the App Store some time back because there app didn't even do this, it went directly to their store and bypassed using the browser.


I've had this argument with someone else so I won't go into it in depth here but all Apple is doing is coming up with a compromise that has the ebook apps to conform to the same rules that other developers have always had to follow.


So don't buy any books from the Apple Store. Also, if you feel that strongly about it and don't want to place a bookmark in your browser to go to the B&N ebook store, go straight to your closest Barnes and Noble store tomorrow and buy a Nook, then head to whatever cell provider you use and get that Android. Otherwise you are just blowing smoke and no one will take you seriously.


And, as you may recall, this is a user-to-user site, there are no officials from Apple here, and while I can't speak for others but I really don't care if you switch or not.

Jul 27, 2011 9:30 PM in response to cmt1989

Apple's rule was that in-app purchases for subscriptions or electronic media need to be routed throught the Apple app store and is subject to the same royalty agreement as the apps themselves. There's no rule that prevents making in-app purchases or preventing B&N from selling through the Nook app, except that it costs alot and they don't want to / cannot afford it.


It's perfectly legal for the app to send you to Safari to make your purchases instead. That's within the rules. The app can then access what you purchased through their web store.


Apple has a profit motive for this, obviously, and they probably enforce it mostly so that in-app purchases are understood to be universally vetted and handled by Apple - a single broker. That's actually not a bad idea - though the royalty charge for the service is simply nonsensical for e-books when the margins on e-books are so low.


The lesson: in app purchases are suitable for games and whatnot, but not suitable for low-margin e-media.

Can't buy books with Nook app per Apple. Why?

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