Amazon preps Kindleware for Android, Windows tablets
Beyond the iPad
Amazon is prepping Kindleware for Android and Windows tablets.
On Tuesday, the etailer announced that its tailoring free Kindle apps for new Android- and Windows-based tablets "coming in 2011." The apps will allow tablet users to download and read ebooks from Amazon's Kindle bookstore – even if they don't own a physical Kindle ereader.
Amazon already offers Kindleware for the Apple iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerries, and Android-based handsets. With these apps, you can share titles you've purchased across multiple devices, and as you move from device to device, your central Kindle account will keep track of, say, what page you're on. The same will apply to the new tablet apps.
According to Amazon, "many people" are buying a physical Kindle reader as well as an "LCD tablet computer" – code for an iPad. "We’re very excited to support the upcoming Android and Windows LCD tablet computers with free Kindle apps that we’ll tailor for the particular devices," read a canned statement from Amazon's Kindle director Dorothy Nicholls.
The announcement comes on the eve of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada, where Microsoft is expected to reveal a tablet-happy version of Windows. ®
COMMENTS
Except ...
They've been constantly cheaper than their rivals in the US as well for a few years now - a long time for a loss leader promotion - and if you were right about their reasons, why have their rivals not done the same ?
Oh and why not post under your account name rather than anonymously as you post the same anti-kindle comments on every related thread - you too ashamed of your trolling ?
and how long do you expect that to last?
Amazon are clearly paying the difference as a loss-leader. Once they have sewn the market up, they subsidized hardware and content will evaporate overnight and Amazon will be free to charge what they want...
It's all going to change soon anyway, as Google are entering the e-book market supporting EPUB and getting publishers onboard.
woops
"For non-DRM ePuB there is also Kindle" should read "For non-DRM ePuB there is also Calibre."
Except ...
Amazon are out selling the ePuB retailers, probably as a result of them being considerably and consistently cheaper than the likes of Waterstones and W H Smiths. For non-DRM ePuB there is also Kindle.
If market forces were to end the format war then it's far more likely that Sony et al will start making readers for the Amazon format.
Personally I would like to see kindles reading ePub format without the need for conversion.
Couldn't care less.
EPUB is the future. I fell sorry for those that invested in Kindle hardware and the iTunes-like Amazon lock in.
I predict a year before Amazon are also forced to sell EPUB too.
