Problems of a Closed Universe

Problems of a Closed Universe

In our highly technological world, perhaps we are forever condemned to repeat of the VHS/Betamax format wars. The current iteration of this silliness is the competing digital publication formats. More than a technological inconvenience, it can be a barrier that simply disregards a significant portion of the population. Here is a prime example.

LensWork alumnus photographer James Whitlow Delano has recently published a new e-book of his work in the tsunami-struck regions of northern Japan. I love Delano's work and his photographic eye, so I was excited to receive his e-mail announcing this new publication. Titled Black Tsunami, it held promise to be a photographic project I knew I would purchase without hesitation. But then the technological barrier popped up and completely frustrated my efforts. To quote the iTunes store, "Books must be read on an iOS device." You've got to be kidding me.

I applauded Delano's strategy to publish this as an e-book; I was highly disappointed to learn that it is only published as an iBook and therefore only available for the iPad, only available through iTunes, and thereby only available to people who are plugged in to that closed universe. Well, I should be more honest about this: I wasn't only "highly disappointed," I was pissed — not at Delano, but at Apple and the publisher. Although I own an iPad, I only use it for testing purposes as we prepare each iPad edition of LensWork Extended. For my personal use, I prefer my Android-based tablets or smartphone.

As far as I'm aware, this is the first instance in which I have been completely blocked from purchasing an e-publication because it was solely compatible with a single device and format. Kindle books are compatible with any device (via Kindle eReader software); PDF publications are similarly compatible with any device (hence our use of PDF format epublishing); even standard ePub format e-books are device agnostic. But if one chooses to publish via iTunes and the iBooks format, all pretense of universal availability evaporates.

Maybe I'm being overly sensitive, but the arrogance of publishing a book that is only available to a single device/format seems to me to go against the entire concept of publishing. What if Random House or Knopf decided to publish a book with special inks that were only visible if you used a specific kind of light bulb in your reading lamp? Can you imagine Sting releasing a new batch of music that required you use a specific headphone to decode the signal? What if your favorite website announced it would only be accessible if you used a unique browser and that it's content would be inaccessible with Safari or Firefox?

It's too bad, really — especially for Delano. I would have enjoyed seeing his new ebook, but will by necessity need to be patient in the hopes that his publisher eventually realizes that there are those among us who have chosen to live outside the Apple ecosystem. If I blame anyone for this absurdity, it is Apple. In their zeal to control their ecosystem with an iron fist, they've hurt innocent and talented photographers like James Whitlow Delano and all of us consumers who resist their exclusionary philosophy.

Comments

[Oldsweng]

The publisher is just going where the largest market resides at this time. Scott Kelby published some interesting share-of-market numbers a couple of months ago when he started introducing Apps and the Android based tablets were miniscule in numbers compared to iPads. I prefer PDF but old school publishers are just myopic at this time.

[Rich Ruh]

Apple is in the business of selling devices, not books. Amazon is the business of selling books, hence the proliferation of Kindle clients on multiple devices. Both companies are up-front about their business models, so I'm not sure why you're mad at Apple.

The publisher made a choice to publish this on Apple instead of Amazon (which sells over 70% of e-books worldwide) or Nook.

Some possible reasons:
- Better contract terms
- Better file format (Kindle format was designed primarily for text, and the vast majority of Kindle devices are black and white eInk readers)

Apple didn't make this decision- the publisher did.

(And there's always the possibility that a new format will come out next week for a different platform)

[Dennis Mook]

Amen, brother. As for market share, saying that Apple has the majority of the tablet market is short-sighted. Millions of people have PC based laptops and desktops, many more around the world than iOS devices, and to eliminate that market is foolhardy. Personally, I rather look at electronic photographs on my 24 inch monitor than a portable device. As already mentioned, I can read my Kindle content on my desktop, laptop, android phone, iPad and even both of my Kindles, the Fire and keyboard models. I have access to Kindle content at any time, which is nice. Could this all be about absolute control and money?

[dan]

if you were PISSED, welcome to my world, where not a single day passes without being greeted with these words at some point: item not available in your COUNTRY!

[Jim Bullard]

Scott Kelby of NAPP produces a digital magazine that is only available to iPad users. When Andriod users complained we got lectured about feeling entitled. If we chose to use a non-Apple platform we should accept the limitations that come with that choice. Apple not only wants to sell devices, they want to control what is on those devices. Apple is a club and you have to be an Apple fanboy to understand the mentality.

[Godfrey DiGiorgi]

Whole lotta silliness, people.

iBook Author can produce iBooks as well as epubs and PDFs. If you want all the bells and whistles that it supports in iBooks, then only the iOS iBook app can show your work. However, if you want to produce a simpler but still very compelling PDF, it's up to you as an author to do so ... and you can market such electronic publications any way you want. And if you want to create iBooks but give them away, you can give them away to anyone who has a compatible iOS device with iBooks to read them.

Or you can create your book in Apple's Pages app and output to .pages format, or either epub or PDF (or Word or HTML).
Or you can create your book in Apple's Keynote app and output to .key format, or either PDF, MPEG-4, etc.

Can you create a Kindle mobi format book and sell it outside of the Amazon infrastructure? I don't know, but I don't know of anyone doing it.

It's up to the author of a book to determine the best implementation and distribution options for their work. Apple offers plenty of choices. James Whitlow Delano simply chose one which he found to be the most compelling, and it isn't available on other platforms.

[Michael J Carl]

Brooks don't rant on apple. Instead ask Mr Delano why he is only offering it through iBooks. Maybe another version is in the works. He isn't required to exclusively sell it through iBooks or Kindle or any other platform for that matter. In a perfect world one format would work for all. Next time you come to Montana you can borrow my copy.

PS - Have a great and safe trip to China.

[Beau]

Oh come on michael, it's waaaaay easier to just rant about apple

[Al Benas]

Brooks, I agree with you completely. If you follow Apple's history, it seems to indicate that, back 15+ years ago, the way to return to a viable company (when Steve Jobs returned to Apple) and stay there was to sell their products, with brilliant design and advertising, and then administer total control. It has been a very successful strategy, but one that demands complete allegiance from a large base of users. But I believe that when you agree to forsake all competition, society will eventually suffer. I have lived through this when my daughter attended art school and had to buy in to the Apple universe, and I haven't stopped paying the "price" for it since. I can only shake my head when I have to compare what I have available to me in the alternate universe and what she is forced to do. But ultimately, it was the author's decision to forgo a significant market - and I actually like real books best of all:)

And maybe if Google fostered the same software consistency across the various Android hardware platforms as Microsoft fostered with Windows, there might be a better content market opportunity for consumers.

Or maybe if Nikon dSLRs were the only cameras that could take landscape photos ...