Amazon.com today introduced “Kindle for BlackBerry,” a new application available as a free download from Amazon.com. The app allows a range of BlackBerry devices access to Amazon’s catalog of over 420,000 books, including 102 of 112 New York Times Bestsellers.
“Since the launch of our popular Kindle for iPhone app last year, customers have been asking us to bring a similar experience to the BlackBerry, and we are thrilled to make it available today,” said Ian Freed, Vice President, Amazon Kindle, in a statement.
The eReader market has seen massive disruption over the last few months, as more devices are rolled out and content prices are negotiated across the industry. Most recently, Amazon.com was involved in a dispute with publisher Macmillan over Amazon’s strict $9.99 pricing of new releases.
Macmillan demanded a $14.99 price tag for all of its new releases. Amazon balked at the suggestion, going so far as to briefly pull all of Macmillan’s titles from its virtual shelves, but in the end conceded to the publisher’s demands.
Amazon.com is also feeling the heat as Apple ramped up competition on the device side of the eReader market with its recently unveiled iPad. Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs even took a swipe at Amazon following the iPad unveiling in San Francisco. Jobs told Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal‘s All Things Digital blog, in a brief interview posted online, that eBook prices will eventually be the same across the board.
“Publishers are actually withholding books from Amazon because they’re not happy,” Jobs told Mossberg.
Filed Under: Devices
