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By Rob Garretson
Amazon has made its Kindle software available as a free download to a range of newer BlackBerry models, allowing users to access more than 420,000 e-books and escalating an already raging battle over a potential standard and the emerging market for e-readers.
The new Kindle for BlackBerry app, still in beta but available for download from Amazon, gives the online retail giant the potential to reach an even wider audience of smartphone users than it did last year with the release of Kindle for iPhone. And it comes as the e-reader niche is in the spotlight with the high-profile debut of Apple's iPad last month and new Android-based tablets like the one introduced by HP last month.
"Kindle for BlackBerry is a great way for customers to continue reading their current book wherever they are -- in between meetings, at the grocery store or waiting in the doctor's office," said Amazon Kindle vice president Ian Freed in a statement.
Amazon's e-reader app for smartphones is designed to work in conjunction with its dedicated e-reader hardware -- Kindle, Kindle DX, Kindle 2 and Kindle DX 2 -- which occupy an increasingly crowded field of devices, with the iPad joining dedicated readers such as the Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble's Nook.
The new Kindle for BlackBerry app works with models released after the 8520, including the Bold 9000 and 9700, the Curve 8520 and 8900, the Storm 9530 and 9550, and the Tour 9630. It works across most U.S. wireless networks, including Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile, said Amazon. It provides wireless access to more than 420,000 Kindle books, including 102 of 112 New York Times Bestsellers and new releases, which typically cost $9.99 or less.
The app incorporates Amazon's Whispersync technology for saving and synchronizing users' bookmarks across devices running Kindle software such as the Kindle/Kindle DX, iPhone, iPod touch and PC. Whispersync will be available on the Mac and iPad "soon," Amazon said.
The free BlackBerry app can be downloaded at www.amazon.com/kindlebb.
According to the most recent data from research firm comScore, RIM's Blackberry maintains a substantial market-share lead over other smartphone platforms, though Google's Android doubled its share in fourth-quarter 2009 (albeit from a very small base) and Apple's iPhone continues to gain ground after taking over the second spot in third-quarter 2009 from Microsoft's slipping Window Mobile (see chart). Microsoft hopes to regain momentum with the introduction last week of Windows Phone 7, but it will not hit the market until "holiday 2010," Microsoft said.
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