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Following hard on the heels of the removal of Kobo’s iOS in-app sales, Amazon has now removed the shopping link from its Kindle iOS app.
(Credit: Amazon)
The move is in response to restrictions placed by Apple on in-app sales — that is, that 30 per cent of all sales made in-app must go to Apple. Given that ebooks are already lower in price than paper books, the profit margin left by Apple’s bite is too slender (if present at all) to make selling ebooks in-app worthwhile.
Kindle app users can still purchase ebooks via the Amazon website and sync their purchases to their iDevice. Android users can still make their purchases in-app.
In the US, other apps are also undergoing changes. Nook Kids removed in-app sales, and Google Books was removed from the iTunes App Store completely. Now Google Books is back — but with the in-app store removed — and Nook for iPhone has also closed in-app sales — and removed the iPad app from the iTunes store completely.
Do you use any of these apps? Will you continue to do so, and take the extra step to sync your purchases, or will you make the move to Apple’s iBooks?
