The battle for the eBook / eReader market continues to heat up – Kindle for Android has come out of beta is now available in the Android Market (requires Android 1.6 or higher). On your phone, just go to the Android market and search for “Kindle” and read away!
This is of course a real boon for Android tablets, as it puts what many people consider the best book reader onto the Google platform. How this will impact what Google does with it’s own eBook play, Google Editions which should be out this summer, we’ll have to see. At any rate, if you have one of those large 4.3″ screen Android phones right now, this is just about a must have app. Of course, for only $189 now, you can just go and buy the Kindle itself, but if you’re an Android fan (and are just waiting for a killer Android tablet – Dell Streak maybe?) then this is great news.
Here’s what Amazon has to say about the new app:
- Get the best reading experience available on your Android phone. No Kindle required
- Access your Kindle books even if you don’t have your Kindle with you
- Automatically synchronizes your last page read and annotations between devices with Whispersync
- Adjust the text size, add bookmarks, and view the annotations you created on your Kindle, computer, or other Kindle-compatible device
- Read in portrait or landscape mode
- Tap on either side of the screen or flick to turn pages
- View larger image
- Shop for books in the Kindle Store optimized for your Android phone
- Buy a book from the Kindle Store optimized for your Android phone and get it auto-delivered wirelessly
- Search and browse more than 600,000 books, including 109 of 110 New York Times bestsellers. If you are a non-U.S. customer, book availability may vary
- Find New York Times® Best Sellers and new releases from $9.99
- Get free book samples. Read the beginning of books for free before you decide to buy
- Books you purchase can also be read on a Kindle, computer, or other Kindle-compatible mobile devices
- Kindle newspapers, magazines and blogs are currently not available on Kindle for Android
- Kindle for Android is currently available for customers in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, United Kingdom, United States
Get the TNW newsletter
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.