Demand for Apple Book Apps is on rise

Bangalore: With the demand for digital book applications on Apple devices gives developers and publishers fresh ways to make money, e-books are booming now, with book-related apps outnumbering those dedicated to games. In February 2010, users downloaded one e-book for every four mobile games, compared with one for every six games in October, according to Mobclix, which analyzes iPhone application use, reports Olga Kharif from the BusinessWeek.

Indeed, electronic books are now the largest content category at the App Store, which features apps for the iPhone, iPod touch, and forthcoming iPad, a tablet-style computer. The store boasts 26,976 e-books, compared with 25,330 games, Mobclix says. The surge in popularity is a boon for book publishers as well as software developers such as Oceanhouse. It also demonstrates the potential for Apple products to serve as alternatives to dedicated e-book reading devices such as the Amazon Kindle and Sony Reader. "We are going to stand on [Amazon's] shoulders and go further," Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs said in January, when he introduced the iPad, which will emphasize book reading.

Michel Kripalani, a veteran creator of video games, started making e-books when e-books weren't cool. At the time, Apple's App Store, an online software application marketplace, boasted thousands of game apps and merely 700 book-related titles. "If everyone is growing corn, maybe it's time to grow soy," he figured. Kripalani is glad he switched. His company, Oceanhouse Media, sells three of the 10 best-selling book apps in the App Store.

Apple keeps 30 percent of the sales generated by apps; the app vendors keep the rest. When the iPad goes on sale, Apple plans to introduce an iBooks application that will provide access to an iPad bookstore offering titles from major publishers such as Simon & Schuster, Penguin, and HarperCollins. Analysts say Apple will let publishers set higher prices for their books than they can at Amazon, which sells most books for about $10, giving publishers an incentive to bring new titles to Apple first. Lonely Planet is preparing a series of eight books that will be available for the iPad before the Kindle, says John Boris, Managing Director of Lonely Planet Americas.

Also, using Mobile Roadie's templates, publishers can create a book app in less than 30 minutes, for a $500 fee up front and $30 a month. Other publishers share part of their app revenues with developers. Some, including Lonely Planet, create apps in-house. Six months ago, Mobile Roadie helped launch several apps for publisher Random House. The Santa Monica (Calif.)-based startup is now building apps for HarperCollins and is discussing book apps with Scholastic, says Mobile Roadie CEO Michael Schneider.

The popularity of book-related apps on Apple devices may be especially disruptive for existing makers of e-readers. While sales of standalone e-readers may double to 5 million units in 2010, they may rise only 30 percent next year, in part because of the iPad's introduction, says Susan Kevorkian, a program director at consultant IDC. "Content providers have a much richer platform on the iPad" than on the Kindle, says Charlie Wolf, senior analyst at Needham & Co.

Apple's foray into e-books isn't all bad for Amazon. The Kindle app for the iPhone is one of the most popular free apps on the App Store. The software gives users access to the more than 450,000 titles available for purchase for the Kindle.