Apple enables iBookstore gifting in time for holidays

With iBookstore gifting, owners of products within the Apple ecosystem now have a bevy of choices from which to choose when picking out a digital gift. First spotted by MacWorld, the new feature adds to music, movie, TV show and app gifting already available to users.

In practice, iBookstore gifting is identical to its iTunes Store and App Store counterparts. After finding a specific title, users select the "Gift" option from the book's drop down menu, or share button in iOS, and enter the recipient's information.

Email formatting looks to be identical to Apple's other digital gifting options on the iTunes and App Stores, as Apple provides the ability to send the gift immediately, or save it for a later date. There is also space for a note that will be sent along with the gift and the usual "To" and "From" data fields.

Users can gift books from both the iOS and OS X iBookstores, the latter of which was added when Apple released a Mac version of iBooks with OS X 10.9 Mavericks in October.

With the ability to gift books, iOS and OS X device owners now have a wide variety of content to send to their friends and family. Starting with music, movie and TV show gifting, Apple expanded the feature to the iOS App Store in 2010.