Sorry, wishful thinkers. Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) isn’t going to match the e-book competition with an app that works across devices. Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) and Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) have cross-platform e-book apps in addition to their e-readers but Apple’s new iBook app is unapologetically iPad only as in “you must own an iPad to use iBooks.” That means unlike the Kindle and B&N apps, you can’t — at least for now — start reading on an iPad, switch to an iPhone for mobility and then pick up on a Mac or PC. But Apple wants you to know it’s an “amazing” way to download and read books.
It’s also only available in the U.S. for now but it does come in eight languages, though, in addition to English. (Dutch, Spanish, German, Chinese, French, Italian, Japanese, Russian, to be exact.) Some other attributes:
— it comes with a free copy of A.A.Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh.
— books or other documents added to the advice have to be in ePub format and DRM-free — ie not from most other e-bookstores.
— ePub documents can only be added via iTunes sync.
— books can be managed via the “beautiful” bookshelf.

{"source":"https:\/\/gigaom.com\/2010\/04\/02\/419-apple-ibooks-app-live-in-itunes-and-yes-its-ipad-only\/wijax\/49e8740702c6da9341d50357217fb629","varname":"wijax_86e6001a380cd92f00f12db20c6140e9","title_element":"header","title_class":"widget-title","title_before":"%3Cheader%20class%3D%22widget-title%22%3E","title_after":"%3C%2Fheader%3E"}