Apple’s 30 percent cut policy keeps apps like Amazon’s Kindle from being allowed to profitably sell books from inside of the app. That means storefronts have essentially been ripped out of apps. What are Kindle customers to do, then? Hit the web. Amazon has officially launched the newly redesigned Kindle storefront with iPad optimization. Good news for Amazon fans with iPads.
While it doesn’t quite have the smoothness of a native app, it certainly has the interface of one. Slide-to-the-left scrolling allows you to easily tap your way around with your finger. Another important aspect is the increased size of the links. Instead of trying to hit tiny little links, these are nice, manly tap targets. Much better.
Also worth noting is that Amazon is pushing their Cloud Reader. Amazon clearly isn’t happy about the App Store restraints, so they’d prefer that you use its website to read. While the Cloud Reader works impressively well for a website, it just isn’t as good as the native Kindle app. For the time being, using the website to buy books and the app to read books is the best way to use the service. It’s annoying and kludge-y, but there doesn’t seem to be a better solution coming any time soon.
Source: All Things D
