Kindle For Mac Released
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We knew Amazon was working on Kindle for Mac a while ago. The wait is finally over and the company has announced its Kindle software for Mac platform. Kindle of PC and Kindle for Blackberry have given us a taste of what Kindle software is all about. Kindle for Mac provides you with similar features (though it’s still in beta and does not do everything). According to Amazon, here are some of the features that are available in this software:
- Purchase, download, and read hundreds of thousands of books available in the Kindle Store
- Access their library of previously purchased Kindle books stored on Amazon’s servers for free
- Choose from 10 different font sizes and adjust words per line
- Add and automatically synchronize bookmarks and last page read
- View notes and highlights marked on Kindle, Kindle DX, and Kindle for iPhone
- Read books in full color including children’s books, cookbooks, travel books and textbooks
The software is not perfect. It is still in beta and does not allow for full text search and note/highlight management. Amazon does promise to bring those features to the software in the near future. While this software will not give Amazon Kindle platform a huge boost, it does complete the Kindle software family.We still don’t know when Amazon is planning to introduce Kindle for Android. But according to its latest press release, Amazon is working on Kindle for iPad. Apparently, that is going to be optimized for iPad to give iPad owners a richer reading experience.
Kindle books can now be read on the Kindle, Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch, BlackBerry, PC and Mac, and soon the iPad.
This statement also reveals Amazon’s long term strategy. For now, Amazon has focused on its hardware and has sold a decent number of Kindles in the past couple of years. However, the company seems to be moving away from hardware business and focusing more on software. In some way, Kindle 3 could be the last stand for Amazon in the hardware business. Since Amazon doesn’t release too much information about its Kindle sales, it’s tough to know how much money it is making from each unit on average (counting e-book sales). So it’s tough to predict what Amazon will do with its Kindle hardware. It certainly would be a mistake to move away from e-paper technology at this point just to compete with Apple iPad.
The iPad is not an e-book reader. At least it’s not designed to be. But Kindle for iPad will make the device even more formidable. The market will still have room for more affordable e-readers, and that’s where Amazon needs to focus on. Could free Kindles be in the cards? That’s something we will have to wait and see.
