Ever since the Kindle for iPhone app was released in March earlier this year (2009), there were much speculation and hope that a similar application will be released for the BlackBerry soon. Amazon then revealed that such an application was indeed in the works, boosting up hopes for BlackBerry users like me.
After nine long months, it seems that the Kindle for BlackBerry application is almost around the corner, as Amazon has recently put up a “coming soon” page where you can sign up for an email notification as soon as it becomes available.
Hurray!
I’ve been carrying my iPod Touch in my pocket in addition to my BlackBerry, just for the purpose of reading Kindle books. Looks like I won’t need to continue this awkward practice for much longer!
What’s so great about a “Kindle for iPhone” or “Kindle for BlackBerry” application, you ask?
Amazon has been selling electronic books for a couple of years now, but they could only be read on their proprietary e-book device called the Kindle
.
The thing that makes the Kindle so great is the fact that Amazon is arguably the biggest internet bookstore in the whole world, and that makes many publishers grant exclusive rights to Amazon for selling electronic versions of their books. Many of these publishers are normally adverse to the whole idea of e-books, and wouldn’t event think of granting such rights to the dozens of other e-book vendors out there, even the more well-known ones such as eReader, Fictionwise or MobiPocket.
While I’ve been a long-time customer of eReader and Fictionwise (for more than 5 years), I had no choice but to switch to Amazon because I couldn’t buy many of the books I want to read from anywhere else. Naturally, this means that I need a Kindle to be able to read these books I buy from Amazon.
But with the release of the “Kindle for iPhone” app, I am able to read these “Kindle e-books” on my iPod Touch, even though I do not own a Kindle. Once the “Kindle for BlackBerry” is released, I will be able to read these books on my BlackBerry Bold too!
