Google Rivals Amazon In The e-Book Arena

The Amazon Kindle reign over the e-book market may be rivaled another internet king, Google, by the end of 2009. Since its release of the Kindle, Amazon has tried to corner the e-book industry by buying copies of new books from publishers at a loss and selling them cheap and solely for the Kindle at a price of $9.99.

Google plans to open up its own market which allows users of any type of e-reader to purchase e-books off of Google at a price set by the publishers themselves. Although this means that some of these books will be a few extra dollars than Amazon’s price, they will be able to be used on any device with internet and e-reading capabilities including the Sony Reader, the Kindle’s biggest competition.

Google has already gotten a head start with its implantation of its book scanning project in which over 7 million volumes have already been added to its system. Google wishes to change its status as a book finder, in how it currently is used to find other e-book and book retailers, and turn itself into an e-book source.

Amazon dug its own hole by limiting its e-book market to only those with the Kindle. Even tho Google books would be more expensive, they would be accessible to everyone else with a different type of reader or a P.C in general. Smart move by Google, but then again, what isn’t?