Online retailer Amazon.com Inc, the maker of the popular Kindle e-reader, yesterday released an application to allow its Kindle e-books to be read on Apple Inc Mac computers. One can download the Kindle application for Mac from here.
What inferences can be taken from this?
If you remember, around the same time last month Amazon rolled out a Kindle application for Blackberry. A similar application for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch already exists since last year. And it should be noted that the motivation for these applications came from a real demand from these device users. Going further, Kindle application for PCs exists too. And now Kindle app has been released for Mac.
All this points to a thing or two: With the Mac application coming just two weeks ahead of the launch of Apple's new iPad tablet, a device with broader functionality than the Kindle (add to this a larger screen size) and an e-reader application; it appears that Amazon wants PC users to stick with their PCs and use the same for reading purposes. This in a way nullifies Apple iPad larger screen pitch. In simple it’s telling people, why buy a tablet, when you can use your existing PCs for your reading.
Even if making content available on other devices weakens Amazon’s Kindle reader business, Amazon still gains from the proliferation of its kindle applications, as it helps it keep with itself the top distributor of e-books status.
Hence the recent roll out and those in immediate past, should be seen keeping iPad (and ebook business too) in perspective, which is seen as a strong challenge to Amazon.
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Amazon releases Kindle application for Mac
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