Amazon has released an app that will bring their previously Kindle based 200,000 electronic books to the iPhone.
Amazon's software application, which can be downloaded free of charge, allows iPhone and iPod Touch users to read books or periodicals purchased on the Web or through their dedicated Kindle device, usually for $9.99. Using a service that Amazon calls whispersync, the program keeps track of a readers' latest page in any given book across both a Kindle and iPhone.
"There are times when you're going to be in a place where you happen to have your iPhone but not your Kindle," said Ian Freed, an Amazon vice president. "If I get stuck in line at the grocery store, I can pick up where I was reading with my iPhone."
Other e-book providers, such as Indigo Books and Music Inc.'s Shortcovers, already allow users to buy and read books on the iPhone. Amazon also faces competition from Google Inc., which allows users to read e-books via a Web site optimized for the iPhone screen.
Amazon unveiled a new version of the Kindle on Feb. 9. Although the Seattle company has yet to say how many of the devices -- its first foray into the world of consumer electronics -- it has sold, the digital distribution of books could be a strategically important source of sales growth for Amazon, as well as for publishers.
Mr. Freed said he is "not at all concerned" that making e-books available on other devices will cannibalize sales of the $359 Kindle. Instead, it will increase sales of digital books and the Kindle, he says. Amazon says it plans to release applications to read Kindle books on other devices, but declined to specify which ones.
Mr. Freed says he expects that users of the iPhone application would read their books for 20 to 30 minutes at most, after which eye strain or battery life might become a problem.
The iPhone application initially won't be available for use outside of the U.S. Users will be allowed to have their books synchronized across six different devices at any one time.
