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Add to SafariWhen comparing Barnes & Noble NOOK Books vs iBooks Store, the Slant community recommends iBooks Store for most people. In the question“What are the best eBook stores?” iBooks Store is ranked 5th while Barnes & Noble NOOK Books is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose iBooks Store is:
Users can self publish their own eBook via the iBooks store.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Send eBooks as gift
The NOOK store allows users to send eBooks as gifts to their friends and family.
Pro NOOK app
B&N offers a NOOK app for Android, iOS and Windows 8 in their respective stores. This allows user to shop and read their eBooks natively on those operating systems.
Pro Self publishing
B&N offers a way for users to self publish their eBooks to the NOOK eBook store, the service is called NOOK Press.
Pro Self publishing
Users can self publish their own eBook via the iBooks store.
Pro Send eBook as gift
iBooks recently updated their store to where users can send eBooks as gifts to their friends and family.
Pro Sells textbooks
iBooks has textbooks for sale with a store wide rule of offering them at lower prices then what is seen on college campuses.
Cons
Con Uses a special DRM on their eBooks, any eBook purchased from B&N is not Adobe Digital Edition compliant
While B&N does use and read .epub on their devices, any eBook purchased from the B&N eBook store will not be able to be used in other .epub readers unless the DRM is stripped from said eBook.
Con No legacy Windows app or Mac app
While B&N use to offer a PC and Mac app for the desktop, they pulled support officially in 2013.
Con Higher prices then competition
Part of the reason B&N is having so much trouble with the NOOK brand currently and most likely part of its decision to separate itself from it by spinning it into its own company is that since the demolishing of agency pricing they are unable to compete on prices.
Con B&N not confident in NOOK brand
B&N will be spinning its NOOK division into a separate company, which does not show much faith in their own brand. What's worse is that this show of uncertainty of wanting to separate from the failing device and it's eBook store will only just further distance the customers from the NOOK. Being that their eBooks have a special DRM scheme that does not allow their .epubs to work in other device, current users better hope this new company does not fold or they will be out of their entire NOOK eBook library.
Con iBooks uses its own DRM scheme called Fair Play on .epubs sold in the store
iBooks does use .epubs for its eBooks but sadly they are encrypted with their own proprietary DRM called Fair Play. This means any .epub that has Apples DRM purchased from iBooks will not be able to be used in other .epub eBook readers.
Con Forced to use iTunes or an Apple product
There is no webpage for the iBooks Store which means there is no way to browse Apples eBook selection without using one of their device or installing iTunes.
