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Jul 27

Kobo Working on Web App to Bypass App Store Restrictions

Posted in: Apple, e-books, Tablets and E-Readers, Today's Chili

Kobo hopes that a web app will help it skirt Apple’s App Store rules

E-book and e-reader seller Kobo is planning an HTML5 web app to bypass Apple’s latest restrictions on its iOS devices. In the last few days, Kobo’s iOS app, along with Amazon’s Kindle app and Barnes & Noble’s Nook app have all been forced to remove links to their online e-book stores.

This is in response to Apple’s rule which bans apps from allowing access to retail channels other than its own in-app purchase option, of which Apple takes a 30% cut.

The rule makes things worse for users. You or I might know that we can go to the Kobo, Amazon or B&N websites to buy new books, and that they will then show up in their respective apps. But e-books are a market also popular with regular people, and they need all the tech-help they can get.

Kobo’s response is to make a web-based e-reader app available. This will run in a browser (or a browser-powered view) and is therefore exempt from any App Store restrictions. It will also run in any HTML5-compatible browser, not just Safari on iOS.

It seems like a great solution, but for one thing. Nobody but nerds install web-apps. Auntie May is going to get her Kobo reader from one place — the App Store. And us nerds won’t bother either, as we’re the ones who already know how to buy books from our browsers.

Web apps are great for Apple. They’re a way for the company to excuse its restrictive App Store terms. But web apps will never be as popular as native ones, and Apple knows it.

Kobo Developing HTML5 eReading Web App to Serve iOS Users [Press release / Reuters]

Changes from Apple affects Kobo’s iPhone/iPad App [Kobo]

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