I had previously given you a heads-up that a Kindle ebook application was coming for the iPhone, and now it’s here. It lacks the “read aloud” feature of the Kindle 2 and a couple other “like to have” features, but it’s a winner in my book.

Although the Kindle is a wonderful ebook reader, the truth is that you won’t always be carrying it around when you find that you have time to read. This iPhone app solves that for me. In addition, after installing this new Kindle app on my iPhone  I’ve found that it’s not only very easy to retrieve my existing Kindle ebooks from Amazon, but when I open the book on the iPhone I’m  taken to the last page I read when I was reading my book on the Kindle. How cool!

I have found that buying a new ebook from your iPhone isn’t as seamless as it should be–you’ve got to open a separate iPhone browser to do this (and log in again, etc) but it’s certainly doable. And Amazon one-click makes shopping a breeze for book buyers.

I’ve also noticed that this new app doesn’t take advantage of the iPhone’s horizontal orientation for text layout (as does the iPhone’s Stanza ebook reader), so you have to read everything in a “portrait” layout. But, these minor quibbles aside, it’s a great app for ebook readers and authors alike.

Why is this good for authors? Because devices and applications like the Kindle and iPhone represent the future of books. Ebooks have been floundering in book purgatory for the last ten years, but their day is almost here. It’s music industry disruption deja vu all over again, because in the same way that Apple rescued music from an inefficent distribution model, Amazon and other technology companies will rescue books in a big way.

If you’re an author, you should be there. If you’re not there, let’s talk.

Till next time, keep publishing!

Henry Hutton

PublishandSell.com