(Updated 3/5) Wow – just wow. Pretty much ever since Amazon announced its nifty Kindle e-book reader in November 2007, people have been predicting that Apple would jump into the e-book game and blow Amazon away. Today, Amazon decided it wasn’t going to wait around and introduced an e-book reader program for the iPhone and iPod Touch that likely blows anything Apple might do away. The new program uses the same book format as the Kindle. In other words, you can now read every Kindle book you ever purchased on your iPhone or iPod.
The look and feel of Amazon’s program is much like other e-book readers available for the iPhone/iPod touch platform. It opens onto your library of books. Click on a book and start reading. Swipe across the screen to turn the page. You have the same multiple-size font choices as on the Kindle. You can mark a page with a bookmark just like on the regular Kindle. It doesn’t appear that you can save clippings or add notes yet, however.
The coolest thing of all is the automatic synchronizing of books you’re reading between your Kindle and your iPhone. Taking in that new Danielle Steel best-seller before bedtime? Say you’ve read a couple of chapters before you stash the Kindle on the bedside table and get some shut-eye. The next day, you find yourself waiting endlessly at Midas Muffler for your car to be ready. Simply whip out your iPhone, bring up Danielle’s book in the Kindle app and, automagically, you’re exactly where you left off the night before. I’ve tried it both ways and it works. Read a few pages on the iPhone and switch to the Kindle – it’s up to date right where you left off. Read a few pages on the Kindle and switch to the iPhone – same deal.
Of course, this 1.0 version isn’t perfect. The most important flaw — and it’s a pretty annoying one — is that you can’t buy books or search for new books or really access the Kindle book store at all from within the program. You can, as I said, download any book you ever purchased from the Kindle store, wherever you may have it now, onto your iPhone. But to buy new books, you have to use a web browser. You can do that on the iPhone’s web browser but it should be more integrated.
I’d also ding the Kindle for iPhone for not including automatic access to your own documents that you may have uploaded or emailed to your Kindle. And there’s no access yet to magazines, newspapers or blogs subscriptions. I also noticed a glitch with some cover art not displaying properly.
Still, even with those caveats, the Kindle iPhone reader certainly blows away the other iPhone readers (like Stanza) in terms of book selection and book pricing. As I’ve explained before, no other book store has anywhere near the selection as Amazon’s 240,000 (and growing) Kindle store. And no other book store has Kindle’s low prices. The vast majority of Kindle books, more than two-thirds, are priced at less that $10. Even in the over-hyped, well-publicized cases where Amazon is selling books for more than $10, the price is less than the price of buying a comparable hardcover in almost every instance.
I’d also say that the Kindle iPhone reader is at least as good or better than most of the other reader program in terms of its user interface and ease of use. It’s behind Stanza in font and color choices, but Stanza’s 1.0 version lacked many features at the start, too. For ease of eye strain, zillion-times better battery life and a few other reasons, I will always prefer reading on my Kindle to the iPhone, but it’s great to have this added capability when on-the-go and traveling light. The only thing that needs fixing is the buying experience, so let’s get on it Amazon.
UPDATE: Wow, even Walter Mossberg likes it, pointing out you can now get access to Amazon’s Kindle store without having to buy the $359 Kindle:
If you’re an iPhone or iPod Touch owner who has yearned for a Kindle but balked at its $359 price, or a Kindle owner with an iPhone or Touch already, this new Kindle app is a good bet, even if it is bare-bones.
David Rothman, on the Teleread blog, has a good rundown of the implications of Kindle on iPhone for the Digital Rights Management (DRM) formatting wars that continue to harass e-book customers:
Short term at least, this should do exactly what Amazon says: expand interest in e-books. I just hope Amazon in time will offer ePub capabilities in hardware and software and also be less fixated on DRM. Significantly, Mobipocket softwatre can at least import nonDRMed ePub. Can the new Kindle software for the iPhone and iPod Touch?
p.s. I think this development means I “win” my sort-of bet with publisher and blogger Rex Hammock about whether Apple would get into the e-book selling business. And we’re now, I think, both on the same side hoping that Apple introduces a larger version of the iPod Touch, an eBook Touch or some such.
UPDATE2: Rex Hammock, who I often describe as an Internet smarty for his thoughts on the future of publishing and journalism, agrees I win the bet and also find the new app quite compelling:
I think I’d use the App even if I didn’t have a Kindle. I’d probably not purchase dense novels, but it’s perfect for short-stories or something like a David Sedaris collection of humorous essays — things you’d read while stuck in a line. If you already own a Kindle and an iPhone, download the app immediately. If you don’t own a Kindle, I’m still not ready to declare it a must-have gadget unless you haul around lots of books or don’t have anymore room on your bookshelves.
Prior coverage:
Exciting e-book progress from Amazon and Google (2/6/2009)
Amazon: Follow Apple’s lead and don’t blow Kindle opportunity (1/27/2009)
Fictionwise improving its e-reader and web site for iPhones and iPods (8/27/2008)
Apple will not slay Amazon’s Kindle, not even close (8/20/2008)
Fictionwise e-reader for iPhone equals new Kindle competitor (7/10/2008)
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