The interwebs are all a Twitter with the new IndieBound iPhone app, but I had not read deep enough into all the news to realize that the stores had started competing in this space too.
Though they may not have many customers via the ebooks channel yet, it’s smart that they are making it an option to site visitors and store customers. Even though they’re hands are tied by the DRM publishers and distributors have on their books, I thought that the eBooks FAQ was pretty informative for the everyday newbie.
I used to think that days like today were nothing more than some marketing gimmick conjured up by various trade associations, but today is different. “Buying local” seems to be the savior we’ve been looking for all this time. Which financial institutions are surviving the financial crisis the best? Local ones. Where is the best place to buy food, ensuring no crazy chemicals or pests have been involved? Locally. You want to support your community and keep your neighbors employed? Buy local.
The folks over at the O’Reilly RADAR blog crunched some numbers and churned out some graphs. With the iPhone Apps store about to sell its one billionth app download, the “books” category is by far and wide the largest mover and shaker. It saw 279% growth over the past week and while sporting only 11% of the Apps Store’s total offerings. Granted it’s not as popular as the Games and Entertainment categories and the growth probably has a lot to do with the Kindle App, but with all of the geo-synching-motion-controlling-gesture-detecting-music-blasting features that the iPhone can do… look what all those iPhone owners are wanting to explore on their gadgets… books.
