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They don't have it pre-installed, but as soon as you open the App Store for the first time you get a system alert message prompting you to download iBooks.

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Seems like maybe iBooks was intended to be a "first class" app but they couldn't make the schedule to make the OS image, so they decided to distribute it over iTunes.

Also, it's US-only...

And perhaps they wanted to allow Kindle etc on the store without raising the controversy of why they don't block them since they duplicate built-in functionality.

Another plausible explanation is that they can issue updates via the App Store rather than having to release an OS-level update.

I would sure want the luxury of instantly pushing out a minor update to all users of the app rather than having to wait months if I was internally developing a first party app.

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