Up to now, only owners of Kindle hardware devices have been able to read the electronic newspapers and magazines Amazon makes available for Kindle. However, this is starting to change, as the Android Kindle app receives the capacity to read newspapers and magazines, either singly or in subscription form. Amazon calls this “the first Kindle app” to get this update, implying that others—such as the iOS versions—will receive it, too.
It seems fairly obvious that the impetus for this is to compete with Rupert Murdoch’s forthcoming iPad newspaper, and other iPad paper and magazine publishing projects. Apple is still having difficulty coming to terms with publishers who want more control over their e-publications than Apple is willing to provide—and iPad magazines are still unable to offer subscriptions.
And of course these papers and magazines can also be read (to some extent) on Android-equipped cell phones, not just the larger tablets. They might not be able to offer the same interactivity as iPad app-gazines, but on the other hand those iPad apps have not necessarily been making the best use of that interactivity to begin with. If people just want to read them like e-books, Amazon is going to have them covered.
(Found via Fast Company.)
