The Ibis Reader is Well Done

The Ibis reader was released a week ago and it gets a very solid review from the Wired blog Gadget Lab:

Ibis reader is an e-book reading application that does everything that you’d expect an iPhone e-reader to do, with one big difference: It doesn’t come from the App Store. The app runs on any iPhone or iPod Touch and offers full offline access to your library of books, and is as fast and responsive as a native iPhone application. It manages this through the magic of HTML5, which is supported by Mobile Safari and - crucially - offers offline storage for web-sites. (Ibis reader for iPhone a web app that thinks its a native app)

It also runs on Android, of course it should -- it is a web app, though I have not checked this out myself. At Exact Editions we dont care too much about eBooks and the ePub standard. We think digital editions are much more important. But we like the style of the Ibis reader, and we definitely think that eBooks should be done well if they are done at all. Doing them well should encompass, doing them in such a way that users do not get locked down into a proprietary standard, nor is it good if publications are made available only through a sole e-commerce solution (whether Kindle, or iTunes or something else). There has to be consumer choice; and Ibis is also an elegant piece of software development which works nicely on my iPhone and on the desktop. All round it is to be applauded.

Having decent reading solutions outside the Kindle and the iPad is a sure way of keeping Amazon and Apple competitive. Note also that this independent piece of software almost certainly can/will run on the iPad and without Apple permission. This actually is a strong vote for Apple and underscores the point that the iPhone/Pad can never be a completely closed environment and of course Apple intends it to be a developer environment in a way in which the Kindle really cannot be (despite Amazon hand-waving). But there remains a compelling case for publishers to put stuff through the iPad and iPhone ecommerce solutions. iPhone apps have a lot going for them....as will become increasingly apparent in the next 6 months. Being in the iTunes e-commerce environment is all about being discovered, tried and sold for profit and pleasure. Publishers who want to be a part of the commercial success of the iPad platform will have to grin and submit to Apple's rules and commercial charge (30% commission). The Ibis service will appeal more to publishers who have a very defined market in mind and are primarily interested in selling ebooks which do not need the hurly-burly of the Apple market place and can be well rendered in the ePub format.