Microsoft is ending all ebook sales in the Microsoft Store for Windows PCs. It’s removing the Books category from the store as of today. Users will thus no longer be able to purchase, rent or pre-order books through the store. They will be able to access books and rentals previously purchased until early July, but they won’t be available after that.
The company adds in a customer support article that it will give full refunds for all content that was purchased from the Books category. Customers who bought books through the store will receive details from the company via email on how to get their refund.
While the company doesn’t lay out the reasons for its decision to no longer sell ebooks through its store, ZDNet hears that the official reason is to try and streamline the strategic focus of the Microsoft Store.
It’s quite a change from a few years ago when Microsoft viewed ebooks as an important content category for the company. It even invested $300 million back in 2012 to create a separate Nook Media company with Barnes & Noble.
With customers already having different avenues for their online book purchasing needs, such as Amazon, Google Play Books, and Apple Books, it wouldn’t have made much sense to keep the Books section in the Microsoft Store around for much longer anyway.
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