Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Missing the Big Picture: Waterstone's Releases Mobile App Without eBook Download Option

Rather like taking a jet to get to a bus-stop. FutureBook: "The app is elegantly designed, offering a selection of Waterstone's picks in the top panel, and links to 'bestsellers', 'top 50 pre-orders', 'new releases' and 'genres' below. There is also a search option and map that will locate your nearest Waterstone's store. Click through to a store and you get basic address, contact details, and opening hours, but irritatingly not stock information, though I can see this might be a stretch too far for a humble app. I was also disappointed that the app didn't offer more content—video, author interviews, or excerpts, though I was pleased to see that customer reviews were included. The big miss here though is that e-books are not included ... "