I love it when smart deals are made. Yesterday, Amazon (AMZN) announced plans to offer e-books for sale on the Apple (AAPL) iPhone and iPod Touch. The e-books will be accessible via a free Amazon iPhone application which hasn’t been released yet.
You might see this move as making the iPhone a direct competitor of the Kindle, but they wisely don’t see that as the case:
[Amazon Kindle VP Ian Freed] said he is “not at all concerned” that making e-books available on other devices will cannibalize sales of the $359 Kindle. Instead, it will increase sales of digital books and the Kindle, he says.
That’s smart. As a customer, I want the convenience of reading my e-book anywhere I want. Maybe it’s on my Kindle, which I can take on the plane or train comfortably. Maybe it’s on my laptop, while I wait for a program to compile. Or maybe it’s on my iPhone, while I’m on line buying groceries.
Amazon has plans to release e-book reader apps for other devices too. My guess is: BlackBerry (RIMM) and Google Android (GOOG).
In my opinion, Amazon’s success in the e-book market doesn’t hinge on Kindle sales. It ultimately hinges e-book sales. Arguably, this is similar to to the iPod + iTunes + MP3 strategy. In Amazon’s case, it’s Kindle + Kindle Store + e-books. The Kindle alone is a fine device, but coupled with everything else and it’s a business viable strategy.
Smart move, Amazon!
