AMAZON RELEASES KINDLE IPHONE APP

Last night in the wee hours of the morning the Kindle eBook reading app made its appearance on iTunes for iPhone and iPod touch devices. It brings with it all the same functionality you would expect from Amazon Kindle hardware sold. It's probably safe to say that other eBook reading apps are freaking the geek out.

The only perceivable downside is that you can't order books and content over the air. The Amazon Kindle has built in EV-DO courtesy of Sprint, but the Kindle iPhone App only syncs up content via the browser. But that probably won't be too much a problem for most people.

Beyond that, Amazon managed to repackage all the same Kindle functionality in an iPhone-friendly manner. The app handily remembers where you left off reading an eBook, you can adjust text sizes, make notes. Also, if you have a Kindle already you can put the same content on both devices. Most definitely handy. Speaking of keeping everything the same on both devices, a service called Whispersync is included in the app which keeps everything in sync between your Kindle and iPhone/iPod touch. Assuming you have one, which of course few people do.

But what does this say about Amazon and its eBook marketing? Clearly, they're signaling to the world that they are about as serious as you can get when it comes to cornering the eBook market like they did with actual book sales over the web. Amazon wants the world reading their books through Kindle, be it on their Amazon-branded hardware or the iPhone, and I'm sure more mobile devices to come.

Amazon now appears more interested in content than hardware. Why else would they open up the Kindle experience? The money is most definitely in the books and newspaper subscriptions that's for sure. At least today people woke up to having more choices if they want to read off a screen.

Kindle for iPhone (will open in iTunes)