The €359 Kindle ebook reader from Amazon never came to market in Ireland, but not to worry. Hopefully we will soon be able to read any Kindle ebook from Amazon.com for free on a brand-new iPhone App.
In a bid to capture more of the ebook market, late last night, Amazon quietly released its Kindle for iPhone application into the iTunes App Store. However, for now, this is only available to customers through the US store.
Those already owning a Kindle and who have ebooks stored on their Amazon account need only input their username and password through the new application and they will have instant access to all the reading material they would have through their Kindle.
The only difference between reading material is that the newspaper or magazine subscriptions handled through Amazon for the Kindle will not be available to the iPhone application.
While Amazon has not released figures on how many Kindle or Kindle 2 devices have been sold to date, Ian Freed, Amazon’s vice-president for the Kindle, told the Associated Press that the company was hoping this would be a way to introduce a new audience to the device and encourage more sales.
Hasn’t Amazon heard the phrase ‘Why buy the cow when you can get the iPhone App for free?’
By Marie Boran
