Medical publisher Thieme recently debuted their own free iBooks-like app for the iPad. This is an interesting way for medical publishers to start their own eco-systems, allowing institutional and personal subscriptions that don’t rely on a single platform. Already accessible through their web portal, in the future they could expand to Android tablets or whatever else comes along. It doesn’t anchor users to Apple, but it does keep them with Thieme, and prevents the end user from selling a used copy. Like with most electronic media, users want to access their purchases with whatever device they happen to have on hand, and since most physicians are using an iPad for a tablet, Thieme seems to be responding appropriately.
The app itself is pretty basic, serving as both a bookshelf and a portal to their eBook store, but we don’t know that you would want it to do much more. It downloads purchased books through the storefront in the app, or when you sign in with your Thieme username you get access to all of the eBook versions of Thieme books you already own on other devices. The files are saved on the iPad, so you don’t need internet access once the book is downloaded. We looked at three titles that Thieme provided free for review:
