Following Friday’s report that iOS 6 would feature significantly revamped stock apps, sources speaking to 9to5Mac now claim that Apple will feature completely redesigned iTunes Store, App Store, and iBooktore apps in the update.
According to sources familiar with Apple’s upcoming iOS 6 mobile software offering, the company’s three major digital stores will see design overhauls. The overhauls are said to be major and they focus on improved interactivity when making purchases in iTunes, the App Store, and the iBookstore. Social is a big piece of the store overhauls, and Facebook integration is being tested in the iTunes Store portion, at least.
The report backs up previous rumors suggesting that deep Facebook integration will be included in iOS 6. Building deeper social integration into the iOS stock apps also seems like a smart (and likely) move.
Also of particular note in the report is that the new content stores (App Store, iTunes, iBookstore) will include a new discovery engine to make it easier to find apps. This follows Apple’s recent acquisition of Chomp – a company focused on developing an advanced content discovery engine. Curiously, Chomp implementation will not be ready in time for the launch of iOS 6.
Apple is also reportedly still planning on rolling out similar content store redesigns for the desktop.