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Best place to buy eBooks - Kindle or Apple Books?

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Best place to buy eBooks - Kindle or Apple Books?

Cromulent

macrumors 604

Original poster

Oct 2, 2006 6,783 1,028 The Land of Hope and Glory
I've been buying all my eBooks on Kindle because I've pretty much always used Amazon, but I'm curious what benefits Apple Books has over Kindle? I have Kindle Unlimited, which is one of the reasons I use Kindle for pretty much everything but since all my devices are Apple, I thought I'd look into Apple Books.

macsorcery

macrumors 65816
Aug 19, 2020 1,320 3,429
Kindle.

Apple Books has always been an overpriced publisher money grab. If people could buy kindle books from within the app, apple books would not even exist. apple knows this.
I love my Kindle, the hardware is great as it does just one thing and that is it lets you read a book. I would check the pricing of authors you like and see if there is a difference in price. I haven't compared prices of books as I am pretty much a Kindle guy right now... But if you have no need for a Kindle device, price check and see if there is a price difference. I have purchased a few books from Apple Books, mainly a few things that deal with design as I wanted the color pictures etc.

I use the Kindle app on my phone and desktop computer so there is always that route to go if you want to keep everything on an Apple device and still use the Kindle store.

mpetrides

macrumors 6502
Feb 10, 2007
I strongly prefer getting my eBooks on Apple Books because I like the way the books look and the way they paginate.

Among other complaints about using the Kindle app (or a Kindle itself) my biggest gripe is that some Kindle books still use Amazon's asinine "locations" instead of page numbers. Locations unfortunately use numbers that run into the thousands. I don't know about you, but I can remember that I'm on page 138 a lot easier than I can remember location 14536 - 14558.

There is also something strange going on with dimming of the screen in the Kindle app to where I find I have to do a lot more fiddling to get the desired brightness at night. In Apple Books, I just set the brightness using the system brightness in the Control Panel.

The only thing I don't like about using Apple Books is that there is no app for it on Kindles. So, if I really wanted to be able to switch back and forth between my iPad mini and my Kindle, then I'd be choosing to buy the Kindle version of a book. As it is, I'm content to buy the Apple Books version of any book that's available on both, even choosing this option if the Books version is a buck more than the Kindle version. If the price difference is significantly more than that, then I'll get the Kindle version.

I just wish there were a way for me to buy a discounted version of the eBook version to accompany all of my Audible audiobooks (of which I have literally hundreds at this point). But I digress...

Isamilis

macrumors 68000
Apr 3, 2012 1,807
Kindle. Kindle books can be read on Apple devices. But not vice versa. You can also read kindle books in their hardware, which is very comfortable.
Last edited: Saturday at 6:41 PM

BigMcGuire

Contributor
Jan 10, 2012 9,652 13,544 the Alpha Quadrant
What device do you read on? If it is your iPhone then Kindle's app is far superior. Apple's iOS and iPad Book App will not take advantage of the entire screen - forcing massive margins on the side while Kindle's app can utilize the full screen space of an iPad/iPhone. Mac OS this is not an issue.

I started out on Google Books, went to Kindle and years ago (2017?) I went to Apple Books. Apple's book app is not great, and despite requests from this poster for years, they refuse to use full margin space on their own devices. But, it's not Amazon. There's been a few times that Amazon will have the book and Apple does not - and for the most part they're the same price, but Amazon has rewards for buying Kindle books. But for the most part, when there's a sale on Amazon it also is the same price on Apple Books.

Big plus about Apple Books is you can take an ePub file or pdf and drop it into the Books app and have it instantly available on all your devices. I have hundreds of DRM free books in my library synced across all my Apple devices - and this is pretty cool for me.

Been using Apple Books for years and years. If you're trying not to give Amazon your $, go Apple. If you already have a large Apple Books library - Apple Books is pretty good. However, if you answer no to the previous questions - Kindle is far superior. Bookerly is a great reading font. Amazon's Kindle apps actually use the entire iPhone, iPad, Mac OS screen. Kindle apps do a much better job of syncing and remembering last page location. Amazon offers rewards so you'll save a lot more money buying books long term on Amazon. Amazon eBook apps are platform independent too. Also, if you ever wanted to dive into an E-Ink reader device, actual Kindles are amazing.

I'd stay Kindle if I was you.
Reactions: AeroSatan

mpetrides

macrumors 6502
Feb 10, 2007
What device do you read on? If it is your iPhone then Kindle's app is far superior. Apple's iOS and iPad Book App will not take advantage of the entire screen - forcing massive margins on the side while Kindle's app can utilize the full screen space of an iPad/iPhone. Mac OS this is not an issue.

I started out on Google Books, went to Kindle and years ago (2017?) I went to Apple Books. Apple's book app is not great, and despite requests from this poster for years, they refuse to use full margin space on their own devices. But, it's not Amazon. There's been a few times that Amazon will have the book and Apple does not - and for the most part they're the same price, but Amazon has rewards for buying Kindle books. But for the most part, when there's a sale on Amazon it also is the same price on Apple Books.

Big plus about Apple Books is you can take an ePub file or pdf and drop it into the Books app and have it instantly available on all your devices. I have hundreds of DRM free books in my library synced across all my Apple devices - and this is pretty cool for me.

Been using Apple Books for years and years. If you're trying not to give Amazon your $, go Apple. If you already have a large Apple Books library - Apple Books is pretty good. However, if you answer no to the previous questions - Kindle is far superior. Bookerly is a great reading font. Amazon's Kindle apps actually use the entire iPhone, iPad, Mac OS screen. Kindle apps do a much better job of syncing and remembering last page location. Amazon offers rewards so you'll save a lot more money buying books long term on Amazon. Amazon eBook apps are platform independent too. Also, if you ever wanted to dive into an E-Ink reader device, actual Kindles are amazing.

I'd stay Kindle if I was you.
That's interesting. I use Apple Books on my iPad mini 6 and the margins have never seemed bothersome to me.

Reading on the small screen of an iPhone is annoying to me but the iPad mini is the perfect size for an eReader, since it is almost exactly the size of a trade paperback. And the mini 6 has much better text resolution than the mini 5 I had used for years before getting my mini 6 almost two years ago. As always, I think it's a matter of de gustibus.

Oh, and your post reminded me of one of the most useful features of Apple Books to me. I can download things like my weekly church bulletin (in PDF format), the local weekly newspaper (available as a PDF), and even the full Trump indictments and load them into Books and read them conveniently on my iPad mini or on any other Apple device, including my Mac.
Reactions: BigMcGuire

AeroSatan

macrumors member
Nov 12, 2011 NYC
Haven't had a better ebook reading experience that I get on my Kindle Oasis anywhere else and I've used Apple Books and Google Books before. You get good prices, have an option for Kindle Unlimited reading and can use it across multiple platforms, a no brainer really.
Reactions: BigMcGuire

BigMcGuire

Contributor
Jan 10, 2012 9,652 13,544 the Alpha Quadrant
That's interesting. I use Apple Books on my iPad mini 6 and the margins have never seemed bothersome to me.

Reading on the small screen of an iPhone is annoying to me but the iPad mini is the perfect size for an eReader, since it is almost exactly the size of a trade paperback. And the mini 6 has much better text resolution than the mini 5 I had used for years before getting my mini 6 almost two years ago. As always, I think it's a matter of de gustibus.

Oh, and your post reminded me of one of the most useful features of Apple Books to me. I can download things like my weekly church bulletin (in PDF format), the local weekly newspaper (available as a PDF), and even the full Trump indictments and load them into Books and read them conveniently on my iPad mini or on any other Apple device, including my Mac.
Yeah, I think the problem is I have a 5k computer monitor and I really like reading text that fills the screen, so my very light complaint is a personal one, not one most people will deal with lol.

I love my iPad mini - it is one of the best device I've ever consumed books on. I'm really warming up to it. I compare my book consumption and it has significantly increased since I got my mini.

Yeah, this is what initially attracted me to Apple Books - I took great pains to DRM-free my current library (with no intention to distribute) back in 2017? or so and moved my entire 300+ book library to Apple Books - and it synced to ALL my Apple Devices. Since then I've bought about 100 books.


Amazon, however, has deep discounts on books and rewards for buying books. Also, if you use Libby (Library), it is super easy to get a book to Kindle. BUT, it is device specific if you drop an unDRM'ed .mobi book into it.

BigMcGuire

Contributor
Jan 10, 2012 9,652 13,544 the Alpha Quadrant
Haven't had a better ebook reading experience that I get on my Kindle Oasis anywhere else and I've used Apple Books and Google Books before. You get good prices, have an option for Kindle Unlimited reading and can use it across multiple platforms, a no brainer really.
Thanks to this thread, while I was in BestBuy yesterday, I noticed the Kindle Paperwhite for over $55 off (on sale). I hadn't really used Kindles since Kindle 3. Wow, the Paperwhite is a massive step up from those days. I like how it interfaced with my phone to set it up. The UI and store is a bit painful but wow, I've read for hours and hours on it over the last few days and forgot how pleasant e-ink was.

I'd still rate iPad mini as my favorite, but Kindle Paperwhite is very close behind. The Nook Glowlight 4 that I have is a distant third. (We support our local B&N but their e-reader isn't as sharp/great).

Agreed, as much as I'd like not to give $ to Amazon (personal preference), Kindles (e-ink readers and their apps) and the Kindle book market is better. But my 400+ book library is in Apple Books so I'm stuck there for now (but not unhappily so).

macsorcery

macrumors 65816
Aug 19, 2020 1,320 3,429
Among other complaints about using the Kindle app (or a Kindle itself) my biggest gripe is that some Kindle books still use Amazon's asinine "locations" instead of page numbers. Locations unfortunately use numbers that run into the thousands. I don't know about you, but I can remember that I'm on page 138 a lot easier than I can remember location 14536 - 14558.
I never need to remember where I am. Kindle saves my place across all devices with Whispersync. Why doesn't yours?

Yebubbleman

macrumors 603
May 20, 2010 5,645 2,177 Los Angeles, CA
I've been buying all my eBooks on Kindle because I've pretty much always used Amazon, but I'm curious what benefits Apple Books has over Kindle? I have Kindle Unlimited, which is one of the reasons I use Kindle for pretty much everything but since all my devices are Apple, I thought I'd look into Apple Books.
Kindle books work across several platforms and ecosystems. Apple Books only works on Apple devices. And depending on who your publisher is, Apple Books is often later to the party than Kindle.

fwmireault

macrumors 68000
Jul 4, 2019 1,689 7,241 Montreal, Canada
Kindle books work across several platforms and ecosystems. Apple Books only works on Apple devices. And depending on who your publisher is, Apple Books is often later to the party than Kindle.
This is an important point. Over the time, you might develop a quite large e-books collection. If in 5 or 10 years, you decide to leave the Apple ecosystem for whatever reason, you will not be able to transfer any purchased book from your iBooks library to non-Apple devices. At that point, you might have spent hundreds of dollars in books.

For that reason alone, you should be cautious with buying books directly from the iBooks app. But you can always transfer your Kindle books in Apple Books if you prefer the Apple UI.

HDFan

Contributor
Jun 30, 2007 5,484 2,183
But you can always transfer your Kindle books in Apple Books if you prefer the Apple UI.
How do you do that? The _ebok folder downloaded by the Kindle App (Mac) doesn't load into Apple Books.

I far prefer the Apple Books interface so am sometimes re-purchasing in Apple Books to avoid the Kindle interface.

BigMcGuire

Contributor
Jan 10, 2012 9,652 13,544 the Alpha Quadrant
How do you do that? The _ebok folder downloaded by the Kindle App (Mac) doesn't load into Apple Books.

I far prefer the Apple Books interface so am sometimes re-purchasing in Apple Books to avoid the Kindle interface.
Good question - the only way I was able to get my Kindle books un'DRMed was to buy a specific old Kindle, register it to my account, use its serial number in DeDRM on Calibre to remove the DRM to transfer my library to my Apple Books library. An that was years ago, not even sure if that works anymore. But by default, everything is DRMed now days.

I stress doing this is probably a violation of tons of agreements and very illegal if one gives away those books - not even sure if it works anymore but my understanding was every library today is DRM'ed - both Amazon/Apple.

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