14 DAY TRIAL // After confirming the iPad 2 and iOS 4.3 in reports issued minutes after the end of yesterday’s special event, Apple released a separate announcement to confirm rumors that Random House, Inc., the largest trade book publisher in the US, had made its full catalog of 17,000 ebooks available on the iBookstore.
Included with the free iBooks application for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, the iBookstore is described by Apple as being the best way to browse, buy and read books on an iOS device.
Now that it has added Random House, Apple can now proudly state that it has ebooks from more than 2,500 publishers in more than 20 categories of books.
These include Mysteries & Thrillers, Biographies & Memoirs, Cookbooks, Children’s & Teen, Humor, Romance, Business and Travel, according to the company headquartered at 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California.
“We’re thrilled to offer Random House on the iBookstore,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of Internet Services.
“iBookstore customers have already downloaded more than 100 million books in less than one year, and we think they’ll love being able to choose from Random House’s incredible selection of titles to enjoy on their iPad, iPhone and iPod touch,” added Cue.
Thanks to the Random House deal, Apple can further advertise these with bestsellers by Stieg Larsson, John Grisham, Dan Brown, Danielle Steel, Laura Hillenbrand, Cormac McCarthy, Lee Child and other renowned authors.
Apple also announced that upcoming releases from Random House, including Lisa Gardner’s “Love You More,” Suze Orman’s “The Money Class” and Jean Auel’s “The Land of Painted Caves”, are already available for pre-order.
The iBookstore now offers ebooks from all six major trade publishers, thanks to the addition of Random House, as well as from thousands of independent publishers, Apple said.
“We are delighted that Apple’s iBookstore now will be carrying Random House’s US ebooks for the first time,” said Markus Dohle, Random House’s Chairman and CEO. “And we look forward to bringing our 17,000 ebooks to Apple customers.”