By Dan Gallagher
SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) -- Amazon.com has launched an
application that will allow users of the iPhone and iPod Touch to
purchase and read books through the company's Kindle e-book
service.
Late Tuesday, Amazon said that it has made a free Kindle
application available through the App Store operated by Apple Inc.
(AAPL).
Users can download the application free of charge and use it to
purchase and read electronic versions of books over the devices.
The move is the first to expand Amazon's nascent e-book service
beyond the company's own Kindle device, a new version of which was
launched last month.
Amazon says it currently has more than 240,000 books available
for the Kindle service, including 104 of 112 New York Times'
Bestsellers.
Scott Devitt of Stifel Nicolaus, who currently has a buy rating
on Amazon's shares, says the move is significant because it reduces
the possibility of a smaller device from a competitor gaining
traction in the e-book market.
"Amazon has turned its digital book content into an open-source
distribution platform," Stifel wrote in a note to clients. "While
Kindle was made for reading and it shows, some consumers will find
it useful to fill 'wait time' with reading on devices that weren't
built for reading like the iPhone."
Shares of Amazon were trading up 2% at $62.91 early
Wednesday.