Can The iPhone Save The Kindle?
Mar 4th, 2009 | By James Lewin | Category: Featured Story, iPods & Portable Media Players 
Amazon has released a new Kindle iPhone App (App Store link) that expands the reach of the Kindle platform to Apple’s popular iPhone and iPod touch.
Description:
Kindle for iPhone allows Apple iPhone and iPod touch owners to read Kindle books using a simple, easy-to-use interface. You can shop for hundreds of thousands of books at www.amazon.com/kindlestore, and wirelessly transfer the books to your iPhone or iPod touch.
With Kindle for iPhone, you can:
- Buy a Kindle book from your Mac, PC, or iPhone using a Web browser and wirelessly transfer the books to your iPhone
- Read first chapters of any book for free before you buy
- Download the Kindle books you already own for free — they are automatically backed up on Amazon.com
- Adjust the text size, add bookmarks, and view the annotations you created on your Kindle device
Kindle for iPhone also includes Whispersync, which lets you switch back and forth between your Kindle device and Kindle for iPhone while keeping your bookmarks and reading location synchronized between devices.
While Amazon’s announcement makes the Kindle platform a lot more interesting, it doesn’t address the Achilles’ heel of the Kindle: it’s a relatively boring, closed system that doesn’t embrace Internet content.
The Kindle app also has a lot of usability problems:
- It’s useless without an Amazon account,;
- It doesn’t let you browse for new content; and
- It doesn’t even include a free book to help you get started.
On the iPhone, the Kindle app faces a lot of competition – ebooks are already the fastest growing category of app in the iTunes store. Google lets iPhone users read ebooks via an iPhone-compatible site. And other ebook readers, like Stanza, are already well established on the iPhone.
What do you think of Kindle on the iPhone? Does it help make the Kindle platform relevant, or is it just another speedbump on the road to a more open ereading future?
via WSJ
[…] Save The Kindle? – Podcasting News Published on March 4, 2009 in Apple. Tags: No Tags. Can The iPhone Save The Kindle? – Podcasting NewsAmazon has released a new Kindle iPhone App (App Store link) that expands the reach of the Kindle […]
So why would you buy a Kindle if you can get the books on your iPhone?
I think they are going to have to rethink the Kindle hardware!
I like Stanza a lot but the Amazon store is soooo much better for finding and purchasing content. I can live with the Kindle iPhone limitations. This was a smart move for Amazon. Can’t wait to hear about the iPhone/iPod touch sales figures in a few months.
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Why read on a Kindle when you have an iPhone? That’s like asking why read on the Kindle when you have a PC.
It’s all about the media. The kindle and devices like it approximate reading off of real paper. Reading a backlit screen–ESPECIALLY one as small as the iPhone–is tedious.
allah razi olsun sayin admin 😀
thnx admin…