In a recent blog about the Android app for BookMooch, there were a few comments asking for an iPhone app.

Here's an update on that.

A few years ago, I actually put together an iPhone app for BookMooch and was all ready to launch it, only to find that:

a) Amazon had (a few months previously) changed their terms and conditions to forbid anyone else from making a "mobile phone" app if their book data is used.

b) Amazon was sending "cease and desist" letters to iPhone apps that used amazon data. A number of apps from sites similar to BookMooch were taken down. You can google to find news of that, but here are two mentions of this Amazon legal policy: one and two.

So... I decided to create a nice mobile web site for BookMooch and not tangle with Amazon's legal department, since they appear to be serious about keeping mobile apps that use their data, at least on the iTunes iPhone store.

. . .

However, iPhone Moochers have another option!

If you don't know that you can surf BookMooch with your mobile phone, try it out!

You can either go to bookmooch.com and click the "mobile" link that will appear, or go directly to http://bookmooch.com/mobile/

Amazon doesn't seem to be enforcing their legal provisions against Google. *Perhaps* this has more to do with the enmity between Amazon and Apple, which doesn't seem to exist between Google and Amazon. So.. for now at least we can continue to have an Android BookMooch app.

-john