Apple Announces iBooks - The App Store For eBooks

One of the significant announcements at the Apple’s media event other than the unveiling of the iPad itself was the launch of Apple's proprietary book store iBooks. The virtual bookstore is basically an App Store for books.

The iPad will come with a virtual bookshelf that will house all of the users' personal collection of ebooks.

Users will be able to read samples of books from the bookstore before they decide to purchase and once done, the book will be added to the user's personal bookshelf. You can buy the books from the built-in iBook store.

Currently, books from five major publishers will be made available. This includes Harper-Collins, Hachette Book Group, Penguin, Macmillan and Simon & Shuster. Steve Jobs insisted that the company will be "opening the floodgates" for other publishers to join in soon.

Users may simply tap on the left or right side of the screen to flip forward and backward. Readers may also customize the font to suit their reading style.

Checkout this hands-on video of iBooks :



Most likely iBooks and the ebooks bought from the iBook store will also be available on the iPhone with the releases of the next version of iPhone OS.