Amazon to demo Kindle for the Web on Tuesday
Demo is one day after Google announces eBooks; Battle shapes up between two Internet giants — Computerworld - Amazon plans to demonstrate a new version of Kindle for the Web on Tuesday, one day after Google launched its Google eBooks and eBookstore strategy.
Context & Ripple Effects
Amazon introduced the Kindle reader in 2007, then moved reading into the browser with its September Kindle for the Web debut. Google had signaled its own e-book-store ambitions in 2009, making its Google eBooks launch a direct challenge to Amazon's book ecosystem.
The planned Kindle for the Web update puts the browser interface alongside the storefront as a competitive surface: both companies are trying to make digital books reachable through their Internet services rather than only through dedicated reading hardware.
First-order effects
- Amazon's Kindle for the Web demonstration places its browser-based reading product in direct comparison with Google eBooks immediately after Google's launch.
- Google's e-book strategy faces an incumbent whose Kindle brand has been extending beyond the original dedicated e-book reader.
Second-order effects
- Publishers and readers evaluating digital-book distribution gain two large Internet platforms whose storefront and reading experiences can influence where titles are bought and accessed.
- Amazon and Google have added pressure to differentiate their web reading services as well as their e-book catalogs, rather than competing solely through devices.
Third-order effects
- If browser reading becomes a primary access point, control of the e-book market shifts further toward companies that combine discovery, storefronts and reader software in one service.
- The contest signals a broader move from dedicated e-readers toward Internet-platform competition for digital-book audiences.
The trend: Digital books are becoming a platform battle in which web-based reading and storefront access matter alongside dedicated e-reader hardware.