Book sellers face a battle to win iPad customers

“When it comes to buying and selling books on the iPad, we’re about to witness a strange dance between those who make or sell electronic books and those who read them,” Nick Bilton reports for The New York Times. “On April 3, when customers pick up their fancy new Apple iPads and want to purchase an e-book, they will have to decide which online bookstore they want to give their money to.”

“From the start, no one bookstore will come with an advantage: No matter which bookstore application iPad owners choose, they will have to download it first. Even the iBookstore, as Apple writes on its Web site, won’t come preloaded on the device. iPad owners will be asked to iDownload the iBooks app free from the App Store,'” Bilton reports. “There will also be a swarm of other booksellers to choose from.”

Bilton reports, “As my colleagues Brad Stone and Jenna Wortham reported on Monday: ‘Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble are working on apps for buying and reading electronic books, even though both companies sell their own e-reading devices and Apple will offer its own iBooks app.’ And there are a variety of other free e-book applications, including Stanza and Eucalyptus, which are currently available for the iPhone and offer thousands of free e-books.”

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]