Apple iBooks To Challenge Amazon In Ebook Market With Redesign

iBooks is the latest app that Apple is redesigning as part of its goal of generating $50 billion in annual revenue by 2021. The move is also seen as the revival of the Cupertino giant’s efforts in competing against e-commerce giant Amazon in the ebook market.

Bloomberg reported Thursday that Apple is in the process of reviving its ebook reading application iBooks by simplifying its UI and redesigning its digital book store. Apple is also dropping the “i” from the app’s moniker, so its updated version will simply be called “Books.”

The changes that Apple is implementing to iBooks are similar to the things it did to iTunes and iTunes Podcasts that are now called Apple Music and Apple Podcasts, respectively. The iBooks digital book store will also resemble the look of the New App Store, and it will feature a new section called Reading Now and a tab dedicated for audio books.

The news about the upcoming transformation of iBooks for iPhones and iPads comes after Apple named a new executive to lead its revived effort in the ebook market. Last month, the iPhone X maker hired Kashif Zafar, who previously served as a senior vice president for Amazon’s Audible audio books business. Zafar also used to work as a content vice president at Barnes & Noble’s Nook e-reader division.

Apple used to challenge Amazon in the digital book market, but it was forced to back down after the U.S. Department of Justice sued the Cupertino giant for allegedly orchestrating a scheme to increase the prices of ebooks. Apple was fined $450 million in 2016 in light of the 2012 case. Many industry participants questioned the ruling in the case, since it obviously favored Amazon.

Latest market data show that Amazon has 83 percent market share in the U.S. ebook market, while Apple only has 9 percent and Barnes & Noble only has 4 percent. The redesigned iBooks is slated for release in the coming months, so it’s still to early to tell if Apple’s new Books app will put a dent in Amazon’s ebooks sales.