iBooks.com

About iBooks.com

iBooks, now known as Apple Books, is Apple Inc.'s e-book and audiobook application. It was launched in conjunction with the iPad on January 27, 2010, and was initially presented by Steve Jobs. The service was later extended to the iPhone and iPod Touch and eventually became an integrated application on all Apple iOS, iPadOS, and macOS operating systems. In September 2018, with the release of iOS 12 and macOS Mojave, iBooks was officially rebranded as Apple Books.

Apple Books functions as a digital storefront and reader for ebooks and audiobooks. The application is free, and content is sold on a per-unit basis, with no subscription required. Users can purchase titles from a vast, curated library and also add their own EPUB and PDF files to their library for reading within the app. The platform supports family sharing, allowing up to five family members to share purchased books. Key features include personalized recommendations, synchronization of reading progress across devices via iCloud, and various customization options for the reading experience, such as font resizing and color themes.

To facilitate content creation, Apple introduced iBooks Author in 2012, a free tool that allowed publishers and individuals to create interactive, multimedia-rich ebooks. While this tool helped expand the library with a wide range of content, particularly in the textbook market, it stipulated that any content created could only be sold through the iBookstore. Apple discontinued iBooks Author in 2020, integrating its functionalities into its Pages application.