Slash Lane
Lexcycle, makers of the Stanza application for the iPhone and iPod touch, announced the acquisition on its website this week, saying its "excited" about the transition and that it "could not think of a better company to join during this exciting time."
A free application downloaded more than 1 million times by App Store shoppers, Stanza (App Store) offers users 24-hour access to a catalog of over 100,000 eBooks in the open ePub format, an eBook container not supported on Amazon's popular Kindle digital reader device.
Outside of broadening its reach to alternative eBook technologies, the retailer's strategic motives behind the move are unclear. However, Lexcycle told customers the deal shouldn't affect the way they acquire and enjoy eBooks through Stanza.
"We are not planning any changes in the Stanza application or user experience as a result of the acquisition," the company said in a blog post. "Customers will still be able to browse, buy, and read ebooks from our many content partners."
For Amazon, the acquisition comes a little less than two months after it announced a free application that lets users of Apple's iPhone and iPod touch tap into its catalog of over 270,000 eBooks formatted for its $359 Kindle 2 wireless reading device (review).
During a conference call last week, the retailer said sales of the latest Kindle, introduced earlier this year, continue to exceed its own expectations but would not provide exact sales figures.
Stanza, which offers access to 100,000 ePub-formatted eBooks, is now in the hands of Amazon.
Amazon similarly refused to break out sales numbers for its inaugural Kindle device (review) that arrive ahead of the 2007 holiday shopping season, though analysts have estimated the device went on to sell approximately half a million units during the 2008 calendar year.
With industry watchers largely gravitating towards the notion that Apple will eventually introduce some form of tablet-based touchscreen device, many believe company may eventually cross paths with Amazon on the eBook front.
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41 Comments
I don't see Apple introducing a LED screen doubles as a low power, reader friendly E-ink screen. But it sounds possible though joining the e-book thing. I think the biggest potential for e-books is for students. If someone pulls of a per-university distribution model for student litterature and a "notepad" we might have a winner.
Mmmm...mixed feelings. I can't imagine why Amazon would buy Stanza other than to try to lock in more folks into Kindle at the expense of other book stores.
I buy all my books from webscription and have almost two hundred titles (half free, half purchased). Mostly $6 ones in lieu of paperbacks and I get those in several open formats (HTML, RTF, epub and mobi) just so I know I can read them on any sort of device I might buy in the future.
I've not gotten any Kindle titles despite their iPhone reader because I don't trust that kindle format won't get "playsforsure'd" again in the future like they did to mobi.
And there's still no desktop kindle reader...despite owning Mobi and their secure mobi format. So why Stanza? What does that buy them that buying Mobi didn't? Other than an attempt to marginalize epub and ereader even further.
DRM doesn't bother me that much as long as there's some expectation that it will survive to work on future devices. Secure eReader, Secure Mobipocket, Kindle, secure ePub and MS Reader all have significant risks of becoming content stuck on an obsolete DRM format and unusable in future eBooks.
Which is why I'm also hesitant to buy from fictionwise.com (Barnes and Noble).
If the eBook vendors would standardize on one DRM format that would be fine.
Mmmm...mixed feelings. I can't imagine why Amazon would buy Stanza other than to try to lock in more folks into Kindle at the expense of other book stores.
Does there have to be another reason.
Does there have to be another reason.
No, but it's not good for the eBook market. Not unless Amazon gets its act together and decide if they want to sell hardware or sell books.
Because right now, kindle books are too expensive to move Kindles in volume (aka the iPod strategy) and Kindles are too expensive to sell in sufficient quantities to make selling ebooks a big market (aka the razor blade strategy).
What they have is expensive hardware and expensive titles keeping eBooks in a niche market.
Amazon can't make ebooks cheap so they ought to be licensing the .azw format to all ebook makers and trying to drive the cost of ebook hardware down as quickly as possible and then make money on the ebooks.
I've now used the Kindle App to read 2 books and to access several Rick Steves books while visiting Europe. (Had a great time, thank you.)
I truly welcome this news because the Kindle App is clearly a thrown-together hack.
I could go on, but the point is that its not a proper App, but a lazy port. If this acquisition turns it into a proper app I'm all for it.
I'd also prefer to get my book content through iTunes instead of having to go through yet-another-store, but that's pretty unlikely.
I loved having the e-books on my touch rather than lugging around hard-copies, but the app really needs improvement.