Is Apple planning to bring eBooks back into iTunes?

Written by

Kirk McElhearn:

Could Apple be planning to bring ebooks back into iTunes? There was a logic to splitting them out, and releasing the iBooks app. This app serves three purposes:

• You can manage ebooks with it
• You can read ebooks with it
• And you can buy ebooks from the iBooks Store

But the iBooks app is the only part of the iTunes Store that isn’t in iTunes. And you can still purchase ebooks from iTunes; they just download into iBooks afterwards. It is a bit confusing having two storefronts, and two different interfaces. Add to that the fact that iTunes still manages your ebook syncing. So what’s the point of having another app?

Read on. He makes a pretty good case.



11 thoughts on “Is Apple planning to bring eBooks back into iTunes?”

  1. I wish they’d merge the App Store, iTunes and iBooks stores and call it the Apple Store. I’d put everything in the App Store application, rename it and pull the store functionality out of the others. Now iTunes and iBooks are just media managers/players.

    I guess a big problem for that will be for Windows. Apple keeps it simple by just having iTunes for Windows–that’s all you need. My scheme would be more confusing for them, I guess.

    Maybe the answer to that is to merge the stores and eliminate the dedicated store app. Make it a web app instead.

  2. When first introduced, the main features demoed were relating to text books. Notes, annotations, etc. all synced with the iOS counterparts. Having a dedicated app for these purposes makes a ton of sense, and managing the media externally doesn’t.

  3. The whole separation always seemed very inelegant to me. All synching is done in one application but importing / buying is done in another. To me, it makes sense to have an iBook reader, but to have the buying and managing of the books done within iTunes.

    Personally, I hope that they will add the ability to create “playlists” for my ebooks and then sync those playlists to my devices. I have a LOT of ebooks (bought, as well as PDFs and other books on my devices), and the current interface for deciding what books get synched to what devices is so primitive. I would love smart playlists where I could sync or exclude certain categories of books, or specific books, etc.

  4. iTunes takes a lot of criticism for trying to do too much, but I’ve never really had a problem with it, except for those times it freezes on a particular task and I’m unable to do anything else until it eventually rectifies itself. I liked the fact that I could edit the books metadata in iTunes, though, and I really miss that functionality in iBooks.

  6. • You can manage ebooks with it

    I could do that with iTunes, and better. I could edit the author and title information and genre. None of these are available in iBooks.

    • You can read ebooks with it.

    Big fat hairy deal. I could install numerous other free or nearly free readers that could read any ebooks in my Books folder.

    • And you can buy ebooks from the iBooks Store

    Again, I could do that in iTunes before.

    The only thing iBooks added was a built-in program for reading books. But it took away simplicity by adding a separate program, even though I still need iTunes to sync books to my devices. It stores ebook unzipped, unlike iTunes. This means I can’t keep a shortcut to my books folder in DropBox so I can copy them to my devices when away form home. Also, editing the info for books is far more limited.

    TLDR: Added the ability to read books on my computer out of the box. Removed remote syncing, simplicity, and editing book data.

    iBooks is a failure.

  7. To me, it makes sense to have an iBook reader, but to have the buying and managing of the books done within iTunes.

    Agree with you, but why not just merge and make Preview be the e-book reader, since it’s already used to open up the PDF’s from iTunes.

  8. Just as we use iPhoto or Aperture for managing photos and home movies (at least until Photos app is released), I wish iTunes would go back to organizing and playing back only the commercial music and video.

    Mac App Store should be used for purchasing or managing iOS apps as well, ideally with cloud only option so that one does not need to download iOS apps locally.

    And most importantly, resurrect iSync for managing and syncing with iOS devices.

  10. The author brings up as his main argument the fact that since you sync books with iTunes you should manage them within the same app as well. This does not stand well, as you can also sync photos, contacts, bookmarks and other stuff. Also, the fact that you can buy books from iTunes is coincidental, or maybe left there for our convenience – there is no direct link to Books in app itself, it is tucked away in the menu on the upper right corner of the store. The ‘Book’ media kind when you select multiple files sounds like a bug to me. Finally, maybe the hidden playlists have something to do with improved performance when syncing which was mentioned in the release notes.

    Personally, I wish they take everything apart so it there can be iTunes for music/podcasts only (eventually), Videos, iBooks, Voice Memos (what are those doing in my music library anyway?) with respective stores in each app, where applicable. The upcoming Photos app seems to be moving in that direction. And a separate Sync app, please.

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