Kindle iOS app updated with new iPad UI for magazines, Send-to-Kindle cloud storage and more
The Kindle iPhone and iPad app were given a significant update, bringing it up to version 2.9 and introducing many new and highly requested features. — First up are a few iPad specific changes …
Context & Ripple Effects
By late 2011 Amazon's Kindle business had already outgrown its own hardware: confirmed traffic data from October showed the [[a:|iPad]] generating more web traffic than the iPhone and accounting for roughly 97% of tablet web traffic, making Apple's tablet the single most important screen Amazon did not control. Version 2.9 of the Kindle iOS app is Amazon investing directly in that screen rather than fighting it.
The update bundles two distinct moves: a redesigned iPad interface built around magazines, and Send-to-Kindle cloud storage support, which extends the Kindle from a book reader into a general destination for documents and periodicals pushed from other devices.
First-order effects
- Kindle readers on iPad get a magazine-oriented UI, positioning the app as a direct storefront-and-reader for periodical publishers who until now had little reason to route through Amazon on Apple's tablet.
- Users gain Send-to-Kindle cloud storage inside the app, tying personal documents to Amazon's cloud account rather than device-local files.
Second-order effects
- Magazine and newspaper publishers gain a second major tablet distribution channel alongside Apple's own Newsstand-era offerings, giving them leverage in subscription pricing talks with both platforms.
- Apple faces a familiar tension: the more capable Amazon makes its free app on iOS, the more Kindle content sales flow outside Apple's commission structure.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, e-reading consolidates around cross-platform apps backed by cloud accounts rather than dedicated devices, with the e-reader becoming one endpoint among many for a single library.
- Platform owners' responses to third-party storefront apps on their hardware — commission rules, purchase restrictions — become a recurring structural battleground between content retailers and OS gatekeepers.
The trend: E-book retail is shifting from device-locked libraries to cloud-backed cross-platform apps, forcing OS gatekeepers and content retailers into a recurring fight over who owns the customer relationship.