Re: books are beating games as apps

On Wed, 10 Mar 2010, Brenna Lyons wrote:

> http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/mar/09/books-overtake-games-iphone-apps

This *might* be amazing if - and only if - authors are writing 
exclusively for the iPhone. I don't think that is happening, but 
if anyone knows otherwise, speak up, please.

Otherwise, making an existing work available for the iPhone is 
about as difficult as photocopying it. In the time it takes to 
write one game for the iPhone, a single developer could likely 
ready one hundred already-published books for the approval 
process. (This point is covered in the article.)

Finally, though, I'd be interested in knowing what the sales of 
erotica titles are like for the iPhone. If Apple acts on books 
the way they have on other apps, erotica titles will be verboten.
Apple is already on record as wanting content changes in PDFs of 
printed magazines that are available on the newstand when they 
arrive via the iPhone.

There is even a small trend among some developers (of apps) 
*away* from the iPhone, because spending your time and effort 
developing may not be worth it if you have only a single 
non-guaranteed channel to reach your audience. At least with a 
book you can easily take a finished work around to other 
publishers if the first one says no. Games are usually more bound 
to a specific platform - with the exception of Flash games, of 
course - which is another item entirely that is also unavailable 
on the iPhone/iTouch/iPad.

In that sense, the iPhone/iPad isn't really a platform in the 
usual sense of the word - it's more like a media outlet. From 
that point of view, it makes sense that books are more common 
than apps.  And, yes, it's their store, and they can sell what 
they want. But I'm not going to carry "just one store". I refuse 
to surrender my access to the marketplace - for books or apps - 
no matter how much money it saves me -- and because, invariably, 
losing access to the marketplace costs more in the long run, and 
places arbitrary limits on your choices.

If you wrote it, and it is legal, and you want to sell it, and I 
want to buy it, and we agree on the price - why would either of 
us let Apple step into that space and declare that it can never 
happen?


: chris smith ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
: nihil tam munitum quod non expugnari pecunia possit - cicero :


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