Amazon is to launch a free Kindle app for Android to join the free versions for the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, Mac, PC, BlackBerry.
Kindle for Android, the free application that lets readers around the world enjoy Kindle books on their Android phones, is coming “this summer” according to the press release although there’s no specifying if it will be a worldwide launch in “the summer” or just US first with a roll out to the rest of the World over the next months.
The fact that Amazon are launching a Kindle app for Android certainly gives credibility to the operating system, and is an acknowledgement of the growth of the Google operating system particularly in the US market. The cost of producing an app, for any phone is cheaper than it was, however it is still not a trivial sum, and Amazon are one of those businesses that don’t tend to make snap decisions. Although a source I once spoke to said that sometimes Amazon did what appeared to be strange things, but six month later everything they did became clear as they caught up with Amazon. Will they do an Ovi app or a Bada app? We think that’s still a long way off.
Kindle for Android will enable customers to discover and read from over 540,000 books in the Kindle Store.
Like all Kindle apps, Kindle for Android will include Amazon’s Whispersync technology, which saves and synchronises a customer’s bookmarks across their Kindle devices, so customers always have their reading material with them and never lose their place.
Users can see a sneak peak and sign up to receive an e-mail when Kindle for Android is available at http://www.amazon.com/kindleforandroid.