Google Will Launch E-Book Service in Early Summer
Not one to be behind the times, Google has just announced their e-book store Google Editions will be launching this summer in a bid to compete head to head with Apple and Amazon’s e-publication offerings. Google Editions will be available for retailers to sell e-books directly from their own sites, with the profit split allowing them to keep the majority of the earnings. Google will also feature their bookstore through their popular Google Books search engine (a service that helped me to not purchase a single book for my final two years of college).
While it was not announced along with the venture, Google Editions should no doubt sport its own Android-native application for e-book reading on mobile phones and tablets (and if it doesn’t I would be surprised). This would be more than welcome, as good e-book readers are rather limited on Android currently.
However, back when Google first started talking about Editions, they made it clear that they would like their e-book service to be compatible with every device, so it won’t be Android exclusive. Much to the chagrin of Steve Jobs, books purchased through Google editions should work with even the iPad, given Google’s use of the ePub standard. Now let’s see if Google can deliver a truly great e-reading experience.
[via Wall Street Journal]