Amazon begins lending books

When Amazon launched in 2004 it was an exclusively an online retailer of books. Since then it has expanded to selling almost everything, and now at the end of 2010 it’s going to start lending things.

In 2007 Amazon launched its eReader called Kindle. The most recent version of Kindle was launched in July 2010 and offers the best ever contrast rate from the device.

The latest generation of Kindle is the most popular incarnation of the product. Amazon released figures in the second quarter of 2010 saying the Kindle has boosted the company’s profit on ebooks by 16 per cent.

The company now sees the opportunity to act as a virtual library by lending ebooks for 14 days at a time. This will be far cheaper than buying them.

Not all books will be available for lending. The reason for this is that the company has left it entirely up to the publishing house or rights holder whether the content can be lent.

Barnes & Nobles’s e-reader is used primarily for its lending feature. The company offers 14-day lending of its content.

In addition to the lending feature Amazon has announced that its Kindle will now have exclusive versions of newspapers and magazines. The company also stated there will be more free apps made available.

Support for the periodicals will be added to the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch apps before the Kindle, could this be a start business move?

If I had an iPhone with the Kindle app, being able to view my favourite magazine might make me want to invest in a larger screen, resulting in more Kindle sales. Or this might have the reverse effect with people simply sticking to the app.

Even if iPhone users stick to using the app they will need to pay for their choice of magazine or newspaper, leading to increased sales and revenue.
With the print industry looking for a saviour, this could help increase subscriptions and provide a large platform to get the paid-for content to a wider audience conveniently.