New York — Amazon is not conceding defeat with the recently launched Google’s eBookstore without a fight: Amazon executives on Tuesday demonstrated a new version of “Kindle for the Web” as it tries to play catch-up with search engine leader’s new e-book effort, at a Google press event, which introduced a new, swifter version of the California technology giant’s Chrome software for navigating the Internet, according to a Computerworld report.
According to ComputerWorld quoting an e-mail confirming demonstration by Amazon spokeswoman, explaining that the new Kindle for the Web app would “entitling users to read full books in the browser and [enable] any Website to become a bookstore offering Kindle books.”
The spokeswoman did not elaborate further on the issue. But ComputerWorld said that the new app was not ready yet but quoted a Gartner analyst who said it could be launched at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. The analyst added that he expects the new Kindle for the Web app to run on a proprietary Amazon operating system, but that would need to be changed for Amazon to compete with Google’s new e-bookstore.
(Credit: Amazon)
The Kindle for the Web plan first emerged in September and the Tuesday announcement could be a “natural evolution” of Amazon’s e-book strategy, said Allen Weiner, an analyst at Gartner.
Kindle for the Web was unveiled barely a day after Google unveiled an online e-Bookstore in a heavyweight entry into a booming market long monopolized by Amazon. The e-Commerce giant will make its Kindle electronic books available for reading on Web browsers beginning early next year, with people’s digital collections saved in the Internet “cloud.”
Amazon executives have displayed the “Kindle for the Web” at a Google press event in California…
Amazon first unveiled Kindle for the Web as a beta application in September to empower customers to discover new books by sampling first chapters of the books directly through Web browsers without the need for a software download. Based on the spokeswoman’s emailed statement on Monday, the new version would also allow book purchases of Kindle books through various Web sites offering them. It also would also allow reading of the full book, not just samples.
Kindle books will be accessible through any standard browser, which unfurls new features such as being able to do Internet searches on words highlighted in digital works, a demonstration showed. Enhancing the Web app is a reasonable step in the advancement of Amazon’s “Kindle wherever you go” strategy — and also mirrors a response to Google’s eBookstore.
“All the books you love will be right there in the browser,” said Amazon vice president David Limp. “All the books I have are backed up in the cloud.”
Amazon’s current Kindle app is available for a number of platforms as well, including PCs, Macs, Apple iDevices, Android phones, and the BlackBerry. And it offers its own autosync technology called WhisperSync. The Amazon site now is promoting Kindle reading apps: “Download and read Kindle books — no Kindle required.”
“And now, anywhere you have a Web browser,” said Kindle Content vice president Russ Grandinetti.
“Your reading library, last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights are always available to you no matter where you bought your Kindle books or how you choose to read them.”
Gartner and other analyst firms estimate that Amazon’s Kindles make up about half of the market for black-and-white e-readers, not including devices like Apple’s iPad or the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Surprisingly enough, the only e-reader not supported by Google’s e-books is the Kindle. Google says that is because the Kindle does not work with Adobe’s ACS4 technology, which is used to lock e-books to specific Google accounts.
James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester, said that Kindle for the Web “is all the more reason to say that cloud-based reading is not a strong differentiator for Google on the consumer side.”
With Amazon’s ability to let independent booksellers sell books through Kindle for the Web, as well as Google’s similar capability, McQuivey questioned whether an independent seller would be “happier to feather Amazon’s nest or Google’s nest? Which enemy do you want to strengthen?”
The expanded version of Kindle for the Web is slated for launch early next year and will allow bookstores, authors and others to earn fees for selling Amazon’s digital books at their websites.