Flipboard (which I adore) and Apple’s iBookstore (which I rarely think about) have teamed up. Sort of.
A new books section in Flipboard highlights titles from iBookstore. It’s a nice idea, but it doesn’t go far enough.
Instead of doing the obvious thing — publishing full samples — the Flipboard / iBookstore section only shows the book cover, author and publisher’s description. That’s like lining the shelves of a physical bookstore with book jackets, not the books themselves. Why would you do that?
Flipboard’s elegant design makes it a rarity among apps — it’s useful as both a browsing platform and a reading platform. Yet, this iBookstore relationship only harnesses the browsing capability.
On top of that, readers have for years had the ability to dig into free book samples through Amazon and the like. That functionality is now a default, and you can’t launch a digital book catalog without it. Yet, that’s what we’re presented with in this case.
Technically, you can acquire a sample through the Flipboard/iBookstore combination. But look at all these steps:
- Go to the iBookstore section in Flipboard.
- Select a book.
- Press the “Download on the iBookstore” button.
- Run into a “Leave Flipboard?” warning. Click the “Open” button to proceed.
- Load the book title in iBooks (it does that automatically).
- Click the “Sample” button.
Here’s what’s going to happen: Flipboard users will hear about this iBookstore section, give it a quick look, then immediately forget about it. That’s a shame. If samples were included this could be a great tool — and a great model — for everyone involved.
TOC NY 2013— The publishing industry will gather at the Tools of Change for Publishing Conference in New York City, February 12-14, to explore the forces and solutions that are transforming publishing.Save 15% on registration with the code COMM15