Los Angeles — Undoubtedly, it is now crystal clear that following Amazon’s success with Kindle on the iPad, and besides some of its competitors have been doing pretty well too, Kindle was recently revealed to be Amazon’s best-selling product ever, on Tuesday, the etailer announced that it is now tailoring free Kindle to a slew of other devices, as the company announced the release of Kindle apps specifically configured for Android and Windows-based tablets “coming in 2011”.
Amazon truly is the commander in ebook software now with clients for every major smartphone platform except for Symbian and webOS. Interestingly, one does not have to own a Kindle to read Kindle books though. Amazon has gone out of its way to bring in Kindle lovers who may happen to own an iPhone, and Android phone, an iPad, etc.
Owners of these devices would not necessarily wish to buy another device to carry around, besides, why should they when they can just download an app to the one they are already carrying around and read Kindle books from there? Following this concept, last year, Amazon introduced a special Kindle iPad app, and now other growing tablet devices will have their own versions as well.
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Similar to other Kindle apps, Amazon maintains that those for Android and Windows tablets will let you sync Kindle books across other devices you might own, including its own Kindles, Apple’s mobile gadgets, laptops, BlackBerrys, and Android-based smartphones. With these apps, you can share titles you have purchased across multiple devices, and as you move from device to device, your central Kindle account will keep track of, say, what page you are on. The same will apply to the new tablet apps.
After charging up the application, you simply login to your account and then you will see all your archived titles. You then tap on them one at a time to download to your device for offline reading. You can download multiple titles at the same time.
To personalize your reading experience, you can choose five different font sizes and three color schemes — white on black, black on white, and sepia — and adjust contrast via a slider control. Device orientation is supported, allowing you to read in portrait or landscape mode. Kindle for WP7 also offers you recommended reads, and you can preview the first chapter of a book before deciding whether or not to make a purchase.
According to Amazon, “many people” are purchasing a physical Kindle reader as well as an “LCD tablet computer” — code for an iPad. “We are very thrilled to support the upcoming Android and Windows LCD tablet computers with free Kindle apps that we will tailor for the particular devices,” read a canned statement from Amazon’s Kindle director Dorothy Nicholls.
Amazon positively hopes that people will be glad to hold on to both the tablet and a Kindle, or at least both in different circumstances. “Kindle is light weight, easy on the eyes with a paper-like Pearl e-ink display, and has a full month of battery life. It is purpose-built for reading,” said Nicholls.
“Our Whispersync technology makes it simple to move back and forth between devices. Read on your Kindle, read on your tablet, read on your phone,” adds Nicholls. “We will keep track of your last page read, and make it easy.”
Since its introduction last year, the Kindle iPad app has claimed to be a Top 10 free iPad app, the company noted in a press release. Amazon did not announce a time-frame for release of the new apps. “Stay tuned,” Amazon’s Kinley Campbell said in response to an email question.
The timing for these apps could not be better. 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.