Amazon To Sell E-Books For Apple Devices

New York Times:

Shaking up the nascent market for electronic books for the second time in two months, Amazon.com will begin selling e-books for reading on Apple's popular iPhone and iPod Touch.

Starting Wednesday, owners of these Apple devices can download a free application, Kindle for iPhone and iPod Touch, from Apple's App Store. The software will give them full access to the 240,000 e-books for sale on Amazon.com, which include a majority of best sellers.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[AContrario]

I don't knwo why medias keep on hammering that people don't read anymore.

Book lovers don't like wasting money on bad books and this all-marketing era
I d say 80% of published books are very bad or have no substance, 15% are OK
5% are really worth reading.

[StuMac]

I am a longtime bookworm. I have always enjoyed buying a local newspaper wherever I was travelling. I am saddened when I hear the predictions of the downfall newspapers and print books. I was also very skeptical of electronic readers. Until I got one. Now I'm a complete convert. They are easy to use and I have never suffered any eye strain. It saves space on my bookshelves and I can bookmark as many pages as I want without having to fold over the corner. I actually find it easier to look up passages on my Sont Reader than a print book. The list of titles available more than satisfies my reading needs. I look forward to the day when the publishing world adapts fully to the electronic age and offers consumers and authors a fair price that reflects the presumably lower costs of publishing an ebook compared to a paper book. I will always be nostalgic for used book stores and completing the daily crossword, but I prefer the streamlined electronic age to the wastefulness of paper production. Now all we have to do is start producing green electricity to run all of our gadgets.

[marijam]

RE:
“A couple months ago a lot of people thought Amazon was slavishly imitating the Apple model,” said Bill Rosenblatt, president of the consulting business GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies. “It turns out they have a different model than Apple. They are smarter than everyone thought.”

The developments also suggest that, true to his word, Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, has little interest in the market for digital books. Mr. Jobs once dismissed the Kindle by saying “the whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read anymore.”
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Ha ha ha ha ha, smarter than everyone thought. and people don't read anymore. I read more now since I was given my Kindle as a birthday present last year in April than I ever have before. I find myself turning off the tv, not even using it for background noise to keep me company. There's virtually NOTIHNG on tv that interests me any more, except for True Blood, which is between seasons, and Big Love, which is, after all, one episode per week. Even the movie channels can't interest me any more, with their perpetual recycling of the same movies over and over and over and over again.

[LittleSanityLeft]

People read books made of paper that's the way it is and how it will be for the most part for many reasons: flipping back and forth between chapters or pages is easier. Reading text on a LCD for extended periods puts far more strain on the eyes then books made from paper. Pirating a paper back is impossible while pirating a text file is pretty easy. Publishers make less money seeing as the hardcover book will become less viable. I don't know what the cost of ebooks are at amazon but I'm willing to bet the cost is near the same as paper books seeing as making them cheaper -which they certainly should be considering what they cost to produce and distribute- would endanger brick and mortar book shops. It's the same reason music downloads are so expensive.

On it's face ebooks sound like a good idea and considering the cost of distributing them Amazon is hardly risking it all on this venture but it's my opinion the ebook will make up a very small percentage of the books purchased by consumers.

[Glowcy]

.
When college text books start being available on Kindle in a really big way, e-books will really take off.

e-Books on Kindle are much cheaper than paper versions. Amazon found a path to people who are addicted to reading by adding the electornic element. Publishers will not got out of business if they adapt to a new business model.

.

[fedupwiththis]

"flipping back and forth between chapters or pages is easier."

So is loosing your place

"Reading text on a LCD for extended periods puts far more strain on the eyes "

Try and do a little research. The Kindle does not have an LCD screen. Totally different.

"Pirating a paper back is impossible while pirating a text file is pretty easy"

Ever hear of a new fangled machine made by Xerox and some others?
Kindle can use text files but the new releases are DRM protected. The publishers will still make a profit, with lower overhead (dead trees).

What this really boils down to is you don't want anything to change. Sorry, it's going to happen if you like it or not.