The fact that Apple’s recently released iBooks is using private APIs means very little to most of us. In fact, the majority of users want the apps to be the best they can, regardless of what kind of programming they use. Unfortunately, for developers, it’s another story entirely. They aren’t allowed to use private APIs in their apps, which may cause some unfair competition.

Apple’s specially privileged, private-framework-using iPhone apps were relatively few, but their first-party area of influence on the iPad has just spread to e-readers, word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation tools: four major markets in which competitors may be at a severe disadvantage by not being able to do the same things as Apple’s alternatives if Apple chooses to play this card there.

iBooks and private APIs [Marco.org]