Google Books vs Amazon Kindle
On Thursday Google announced new mobile editions of 1.5 million public domain books. iPhone and Android users now have access to five times the number of titles currently available on Kindle.
While these books were already available on Google Book Search, these new mobile editions are optimized to be read on a small screen.
The timing of this announcement comes 4 days before the likely unveiling on the Kindle 2. Coincidence? I think not.
Of course, the titles currently available through Google Books are different from those on Kindle. We’re talking public domain versus the front list of bestsellers. But how long is that going to last?
Last month I wrote about the future of gBooks which is contingent on the blessing of the settlement agreement with the Authors Guild and Association of American Publishers.
Once this agreement has been approved, you’ll be able to purchase full online access to millions of books. This means you can read an entire book from any Internet-connected computer, simply by logging in to your Book Search account, and it will remain on your electronic bookshelf, so you can come back and access it whenever you want in the future.
Add it up. Sometime this year Google will have well over 3 million titles available and optimized for the small screen. In addition, authors and publishers have a clear and decent revenue share (63%) with the search giant.
What makes anyone think Google will stop with public domain and out-of-print books?
Authors and publishers would welcome an alternative to the increasingly combative Amazon. Last year Amazon put the squeeze to large publishers and Print On Demand (POD) publishers. Is it any wonder that Amazon couldn’t convince textbook publishers to play ball with a textbook Kindle.
Google will have public domain and out-of-print books available to deliver to a built-in base of customers. That’s right, there’s no new device to purchase! Particularly not a single-use device with a $359 price tag.
That larger base of customers is going to look very attractive to publishers. How long until they agree to sell front list bestsellers through Google?
Gadget fans will clearly swoon over Kindle 2 but the real story is the growing competition between Google and Amazon in the digital book arena. The timing of Google’s mobile version is a shot over Amazon’s bow. The industry should take notice and the Internati should be looking beyond the hype.
