After Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo cut iPad app links to outside eBook stores to comply with new Apple App Store rules, some content is beginning to return. Barnes & Noble will sell magazines and children’s books within the Nook iPad app very soon.
The new rules would give Apple a 30 percent cut of any eBooks sold within these apps, so these retailers removed shopping links from their iPhone and iPad apps. Users now have to use a web browser from their device to purchase eBooks, making the process more cumbersome.
Google released a modified version of the Google Books app today, removing the app’s link to the Google eBookstore. At the same time, Kobo announced that they will build a HTML5 app that circumnavigates the Apple App Store altogether.
For eBooks, giving Apple 30 percent of sales doesn’t make sense, since these retailers are already splitting their income with publishers, authors and sometimes digital distributors. But Barnes & Noble seems to think it is worth it for magazines and children’s books.