IBook verses Kindle - what am I missing?

Question

I'm a huge fan of Apple and would love to embrace the whole iBook thing - but I just don't get it. You can only read and iBook on your IOS device, no OSX. You can't buy a book in iTunes and then download it to your device, you can only purchase from the devices itself. I currently only have an iPhone but will be getting the iPad 2 when it comes out. Now i'm wondering if I buy a book on my iPad, will I be able to also read on my iPhone?
All of these things are possible with Kindle - so I'm just wondering what am I missing. Is Kindle that far ahead of Apple on this?
I would rather use iBook to keep it in within the Apple product suite, but I don't see why anyone would use iBooks over Kindle.
Any insights are appreciated.
-Mark

Answer 1

As others have already said, you can use iBooks to share your books on your iPhone and iPad, but not your Mac or other devices (Windows, Android, etc.). Kindle has apps or applications for sharing books on multiple platforms. However, if you have an iPad, you probably won't read books much on your computer or laptop (using Kindle). When I don't have my iPad and I have time to kill, I may use my iPhone to catch up on books, so if you have an Android phone you may prefer the Kindle app.
Of the three major e-readers, I think Nook is the by far the worst. I read one book using Nook and I'll never use it again. iBooks and Kindle are much better, though I prefer iBooks. The biggest advantage of iBooks is the ability to purchase books from within the app. With Kindle and Nook, you'll be routed to the external Safari browser to make your purchase on the Amazon and Barns and Noble websites, respectively. I don't know if Apple will allow Kindle to make in-App purchases in the future, but now it makes purchasing books much easier on iBooks (especially impulsively).
iBooks also has other small features that I prefer in iBooks over Kindle (e.g., the way you turn pages, how it deals with pictures, footnotes, notes, bookmarks, font options). I first look in iBooks to see if the book I want is offered. Now that Random House will be on iBooks, hopefully there will be even more titles. But it is not a deal-breaker if iBooks doesn't offer it and Kindle does. I haven't tried getting books via Google or other e-Readers.
If my experience is typical, you'll probably find yourself reading many more books. I have even been buying books on iBooks that I already had in paper form but have been piling up unopened for years. There are also many free public domain books (e.g., older literature).
While it is true that the glossy screen can make it difficult to read in certain bright conditions, I haven't been fortunate to do all my reading by the side of a pool on vacation. If you are lucky enough for that to be an issue, I guess you can always purchase both a Kindle and iPad 2!
Good Luck!