Amazon is the latest online retailer to craft a browser-based work around for purchases made on Apple devices. Amazon has launched an iPad-optimized Kindle site that allows consumers to easily make browser e-book purchases on their iPad while allowing Amazon to side-step Apple’s 30% surcharge on purchases made through Apple’s purchasing system.
The new Amazon iPad Kindle store allows consumers to easily logon on to their Amazon accounts and using the Safari browser get the usual recommendations as well as a site optimized to display content on the iPad. In addition, once the browser has taken the user to the new site, using the bookmarks menu at the top of the Safari browser, the user can click on “Add to Home Screen” and create an Kindle iPad Store icon that will easily take the consumer directly to the store.
Once the user has reached the iPad Kindle Store, they can switch back and forth between the Kindle Cloud Reader to read their e-books or they can read their downloaded e-books in the regular Kindle e-book reader. Google eBooks offers a similar work around for its own e-bookstore.
Online retailers have been forced to turn to these out-of-app, browser-based purchasing procedures for the iPad after Apple restricted purchasing on its devices to its own in-app purchasing system, which also levies a 30% surcharge on all purchases. Apple also forced e-book retailers (remember Apple has its e-book retailing venture, the iBook Store) to remove all buy-buttons or even references to purchasing from their apps, effectively turning apps by Amazon, B&N, Kobo and others into strictly e-reading software. While consumers can easily make their purchases through the regular websites of all these retailers and they will appear in the apps on their iPads, iPhones and iPods, the new optimized Kindle store, and other browser based purchasing strategies like it, makes the process just a bit more convenient.
