More tough news for Amazon. Google will sell eBooks for any device through an online store called Google Editions that they plan to launch next year.
The development announced in a release here at Reuters is a nice change for Google’s otherwise complicated press life as they battle the many challenges to Google Books. Google Editions will allow Google to start making money from one of its book ventures. (That also includes their controversial index of scanned books through library partnerships…Google Books.)
As yet, they’re not interested in making their own eReading device, opting instead to sell eBooks from publisher catalogues for reading on the various devices already out there.
Not such a nice change for industry leader Amazon’s Kindle that is still coping with a sudden influx of competing eBook Reading devices that are more and more relying on the open EPUB format. Amazon’s still trying to control things with its own (AZW) proprietary format.
Research firm Forrester predicts 3 million eReaders will sell in the U.S. this year, up from a previous total of 1 million. They say it’s encouraged by lower prices, more content and improved distribution. (I seem to remember reading that somewhere before, yah?)
Three words for Amazon: ADOPT EPUB NOW.
