Amazon Kindle has had decent sales for an e-book reader, considering its primitive nature. The device does not set the world on fire with its features, but it has met some level of excitement from e-book fans. Amazon may have not been able to develop a shiny gadget as good as those of Apple, but it has been smart enough to bring Kindle to other devices. Amazon Kindle software is available for PC, smartphones, and now for Mac. It allows you to read the books that you have bought from Kindle store on your devices. Amazon Kindle for Mac that has just been released does make things a whole lot interesting between Apple and Amazon. For starters, we do know that Apple and Amazon will be competing over the e-book market in the upcoming years. The iPad is already putting huge numbers on the board and can become the top e-book reader on the market in a very short time. This latest move by Amazon could be just a start as Amazon may bring its Kindle app to the iPad as well.

Here is what Kindle for Mac is capable of (according to Amazon.com):

Purchase, download, and read hundreds of thousands of books available in the Kindle Store

Access their library of previously purchased Kindle books stored on Amazon’s servers for free

Choose from 10 different font sizes and adjust words per line

Add and automatically synchronize bookmarks and last page read

View notes and highlights marked on Kindle, Kindle DX, and Kindle for iPhone

Read books in full color including children’s books, cookbooks, travel books and textbooks

The more interesting piece of news was the hint by Amazon that a Kindle app for iPad is in the works. We have been skeptical of that move as that could take a bite out of ebooks that Apple could be selling through its own service. Will Apple disable such an app on iPad?

Kindle books can now be read on the Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch, BlackBerry, PC and Mac, and soon the iPad.

Read the rest of this entry »

Amazon has been in the e-book market for a few years already. Things have gotten heated up for Amazon with the success of Amazon Kindle. But the company is not satisfied with selling only hardware in this market. That’s why it launched Kindle for iPhone to let folks download books and read them on their phone if they prefer. That allows Amazon to have the best of two worlds. Not only Amazon can sell a lot of e-books on iPhone, it can reach out to a lot of folks and use the app to encourage folks to take a chance on its hardware.

If Amazon’s strategy was not clear before this week, it should be pretty clear by now. Amazon has been making modifications to its Kindle store to make it more iPhone-friendly. After all, what’s the point of creating a free iPhone application if you are not going to use it to push your products and make it easy for your users to get value out of it. Amazon Kindle for iPhone makes it easy to find new content and get your favorite books fast. And Amazon makes a lot of money in the process.

We have been hearing about Apple coming up with a MediaPad to challenge the Kindle. We have not heard the final verdict on that, but I bet Apple is closely watching Amazon. Apple is not in the business of selling books, but the e-book market could prove profitable for whoever comes out on top. Right now Kindle is on top but it wouldn’t surprise me if Apple came up with a Kindle killer. Ultimately, it all comes down to how successful the Kindle platform becomes.

Amazon Kindle 2.0 will be released today by Amazon at a press conference in New York. Kindle is an e-book reading device that allows its holders to gain access to wireless Internet connection on the go and the ability to buy books from Amazon from the device. Amazon is certainly not going to put all their eggs in one basket which is why industry insiders are predicting that Amazon will enter the mobile market by introducing a Kindle store for mobile applications and an iPhone application to allow consumers to read Amazon books on the iPhone.

I have to say I am a bit skeptical about this plan. While it would be great to have the option of buying books from Amazon and reading them on the iPhone, I am not sure if Amazon is ready to cannibalize its Kindle sales by making the iPhone into a fully-fledged competitor. A Kindle application would make iPhone into a portable (but better) version of Kindle, and I am not sure Amazon is going to allow that to happen. Fear not my friends. All will be revealed in a few hours.

Your take: should Amazon offer a Kindle application for the iPhone?

If you thought Apple vs. Google was cool, it now seems we maybe in for a Apple vs. Amazon battle for the supremacy in the eBook market. There are more than enough indications that Apple is getting read to challenge Amazon Kindle device with either an ebook reading iPhone or iPod or a whole new product. Amazon maybe targeting readers with its Kindle device, but by offering audio (and maybe video features in Kindle 2.0), Amazon will be positioned to challenge Apple in the digital content market. Of course, Apple will not be creating a device that will fully focus on book readers, but it’d be nice for Apple to allow iPod or iPhoners to read eBooks on their devices. I think at this point it’s all about who will draw the first blood. Amazon Kindle 2.0 or iPhone 2.0…

I don’t know about you guys, but it took me 45 days to get my hands on a Kindle. Now that I have the Kindle, I can see what all the hype was about. This is certainly a huge step forward by Amazon to conquer the digital content market. Kindle allows you to open up pdf, html, and word docs and view them anytime anywhere. The fact that it’s tiny allows you to bring it with you everywhere. But the wireless features is perhaps the decisive differentiator for Kindle. Sony Readers and other devices out there do not allow you to buy or receive books on the go, and Amazon has certainly got that right.

Kindle is not the best designed ebook reader out there, and it can certainly get an iPhonish upgrade.It’s simple. By going touch, Kindle can move from a close-to-perfection product to a whole other level. An iPhone-like touchscreen feature not only allows you to have more reading real estate on your Kindle, it also makes it possible to avoid pushing those buttons while you are holding your Kindle tight. Kindle is great at it is right now, but it could be much better by taking a page out of Apple’s book.