On Apple's platform, there remains some overlap in books being sold through both the App Store and the iBookstore. Consumers can be left wondering the relative pros and cons of each one, and whether they desire an ‘enhanced’ book. But one app has revealed a rather interesting price discrepancy between the relative same titles on the App Store and iBooks. 

Puffin have created an Artemis Fowl app, available for free to download in the App Store. Upon opening up the "taster library", samples of all the books are on offer and available to download. It is also "jam-packed with Fowl facts about series creator Eoin Colfer, including exclusive video messages from Eoin himself" and the intriguing ability to "choose to read the text in English or Gnommish." 

Yet buying an individual book as an in app purchase through this “Library” costs £5.49, while they are on sale individually in the iBookstore at just £3.49. If you were to buy all seven books in the series, that's a price difference of £14, almost the cost of two physical paperbacks. 

Even taking into account Apple's 30% cut for in app purchases, it is still far more expensive to purchase through the app. Is it worth an extra £14 just to have all your copies held within the one app? Or to have a few selected news updates alongside them? The app promises "ongoing, on-the-pulse information about all of Artemis's latest happenings and upcoming events," yet it currently consisting of four articles with information available elsewhere online.

There is no mention in the app itself of the ability to purchase the books in iBookstore and perhaps Puffin are hoping ease of use outweighs the potential price difference in consumers minds. But it remains to be seen how books being sold in the App Store plays out, as in this instance, it can be an expensive experience if consumers don't do their homework.