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Amazon App Allows Kindle Books on PCs

Free download will let anyone buy and download e-books

By John Johnson,  Newser Staff

Posted Oct 22, 2009 3:31 PM CDT
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(Newser) – Amazon will introduce a free software app next month that will allow Kindle users to read their e-books on their PCs. What's more, the app works for non-Kindle owners: Anyone with an Amazon account will be able to buy the books and download them to their Window-based computers, notes CNET. (A Mac app will come later.) The move comes as Amazon faces stepped-up competition and is working to make its e-reader as user-friendly as possible.

"Amazon, unsurprisingly, isn’t positioning the Windows-based Kindle app as a replacement for its Kindle device," writes Mary Jo Foley at ZDNet. "Instead, as it does currently with the iPhone, it is positioning it as a complement to a Kindle reader."

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos displays a Kindle.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos displays a Kindle.   (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
Claire Becerra, a freshman political science major at Arizona State University, poses with her Kindle DX in Tempe, Ariz.
Claire Becerra, a freshman political science major at Arizona State University, poses with her Kindle DX in Tempe, Ariz.   (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
A student uses a Kindle DX during class at Pace University in New York.
A student uses a Kindle DX during class at Pace University in New York.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 5 comments
CenterIndependent
Oct 23, 2009 12:55 PM CDT
Its been happening for a long time since the invention of scanners.... but I really doubt it would be as a big of problem as music.
CenterIndependent
Oct 23, 2009 12:51 PM CDT
because macs only have 6% of the computer market share while windows is 90%. Its how always been.
jkundert
Oct 23, 2009 12:21 PM CDT
Ummm, no Mac app at release? Come on now, Amazon! I guess I'll stick with the BN e-reader, since it works on my iPhone and my Mac.

 
Kindle • personal computers • Amazon • publishing industry • e-readers • books • electronic readers • Kindle on PC

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