When Apple came up with iTunes (back when it was just music) it was already way ahead of the competition and therefore able to write its own rules. The music side of Apple is still dominant and therefore those rules have changed little so they continue to benefit the shareholder, if not the customer.
I am not a fan of the late Steve Jobs, I was not taken in by the hype, what Steve Jobs was is the antonym of what Richard Branson is. To give him his due though he drove forward an area of technology and this created competition, which is a good thing.
However, the way that iTunes works is to compartmentalise sales of the same item so that customers may well find themselves buying the same item again if they move to a different location on the planet. An item in the USA iStore may not be available in iStore Philippines. US Hip Hop and Gangsta Rap are confined to America’s iStore shores and all Filipinos should be grateful for that particular side effect of Apple’s setup but by that same measure text books for students, recipe books for cooks and cost saving ‘How To’ titles are beyond the grasp of many iPad owners.
When it comes to books, Apple has bricked itself up into a corner by not providing a truly global marketplace, it cannot therefore hope to wrest dominance of the market from Amazon. Only 50 countries have access to Apple iBooks, I am a writer based in the Philippines, which is not one of those fifty, and I cannot even see my own books in the iStore, let alone purchase them.
A major policy change will be required before any of Apple’s hopes in that area take fruit (pun intended.)
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