Amazon tackle Google eBookstore head on

Amazon are set to enhance the Kindle service to match Google's eBookStore, feature for feature. This means they will “enable users to read full books in the browser and [enable] any Website to become a bookstore offering Kindle books.”

Google's eBookstore already offers these features and it appears to be a bone of contention for Amazon. These new additions to the Kindle reader will even the playing field and should give them an advantage over the coming months. While on a features level both systems are evenly matched, Amazon are more advanced with their mobile software and sell the most popular ebook reader on the market. Latest reports in actually confirm that the Kindle owns 50 percent of the dedicated ereader marketplace. Google have no dedicated hardware on sale for ebooks, not yet anyway.

Analyst firm Gartner are not taking a side yet, with Allen Weiner, one of their team members saying “Both are powerful players. Whether there’s a big battle between Google and Amazon depends on what Amazon does next. If Amazon is serious about the device space, they are going to have to open up devices … whether that is based on Windows or Android or something else.” Later he elaborated, saying that Google has to “prove to be a worthy competitor to Amazon, which has years with a global footprint, really strong apps on every device and a great brand.”

Kitguru says: Amazon have such a loyal user base in this market it is going to be hard for Google to get a foothold, but you can never count out the search giant.

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