Amazon has a free application that will let Blackberry users buy and read books from directly from the bookseller’s website. Unlike Kindle’s app for the iPhone, the Blackberry application lets users purchase content seamlessly from Amazon as well as view the books already purchased for a Kindle. This could be Amazon’s way of thumbing its corporate nose at Apple for handicapping the Kindle iPhone app, making users go through the web browser rather than buy it directly through the application. In any event, Kindle for Blackberry is Amazon’s foray into the single-use device market.
It is certainly part of the company’s marketing strategy as the release of the iPad looms in the coming weeks. Many observers agree that Amazon with have to continue to brand its reader with its bookstore while simultaneously making content available to other platforms. Although that’s quite a tight rope to walk, Amazon has the one thing that Apple can’t easily get. That’s Amazon’s years of experience in both worlds.
As for the Blackberry application, it is designed to work with or without the Kindle. For Kindle users, the app will automatically synchronizes last page read and any annotations between devices. While Blackberry users will have access to Amazon’s 400,000 plus books, newspapers are not yet available through the app.