Friday, March 6, 2009

Kindle for the iPhone

The eBook market has been growing at an ever faster rate, just look at the iPhone eBook category. The recent lauch of the second generation of Amazon's eBook reader, the Kindle 2, has also relaunched the public interest in these novel devices.

Though you may miss the physical contact with the paper texture and the physical satisfaction of turning the pages, you must admit that an eBook is often more convenient to carry around. How else could you carry your entire book collection with you, in your pocket or backpack, at all times?
That's why I'm not surprised to see Amazon launching the Kindle for iPhone App.


This free App allows you to read ebooks on your iPhone, and even keep it in sync with your Kindle (should you have one.)

Of course, an iPhone is no substitute for a better, larger eBook reader... but I think it's how it really should be done. They should provide ways to reach you content, in as many platforms as possible - and leave the choice to us. If you don't feel comfortable reading in such a small screen, no harm done - just go ahead and keep reading it in your Kindle. But for a whole lot of people, this iPhone App will be extremely useful, allowing them to keep reading their book whenever and wherever they want.


Just one last critic to the unexplainable Apple's App Store rules. Just like my friend Bruno Figueiredo said: Why shouldn't european customers be allowed to download this app? Just the same as, why can't american users download the Sapo News iPhone App (showing portuguese news.)
Aren't there thousands of Portuguese living in America that would appreciate reading news from their country?
Aren't there thousands of European customers buying Kindles?

Unless they're really trying to turn their customers into pirates....

2 comments:

  1. There are not "thousands of European customers buying Kindles". Amazon won't ship to non USA addresses. Haven't heard directly what the reasoning is but I think it's primarily because Whispernet is only available in the US and that is how they send all patches to their software.

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  2. There are lots of ways to get a Kindle in Europe (or any other "US-shipping" only product, btw) - all it takes is a quick googling to find out dozens of US-address forwarding services, sending anywhere else in the world.
    Personally, I know a couple of friends that have Kindle's (v2.0) and they've been happy with it.

    (Even the US credit card payments can be easily addressed, or so they tell me...)

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