On Tuesday, Amazon.com rolled out Kindle for PC, a free application that lets consumers read digital books on personal computers. The application allows consumers who don't own a Kindle e-reader access to the Kindle Store's more than 360,000 books. Amazon's digital book inventory includes new releases, along with 101 of the 112 New York Times best sellers. The books are typically priced at $9.99 or less.
Amazon's unique value proposition to digital media lovers is that the Kindle Store is the only place where consumers can find some of today's most popular books in digital formats.
"Kindle for PC is the perfect companion application for customers who own a Kindle or Kindle DX," said Ian Freed, vice president of Amazon Kindle. "Kindle for PC is also a great way for people around the world to access a huge selection from the Kindle Store and read the most popular books of today, even if they don't yet have a Kindle."
Similar Features
The Kindle for PC application features Amazon's Whispersync technology, which automatically saves and synchronizes bookmarks and last page read across devices. That means whether consumers are reading on a Kindle, Kindle DX, Kindle for iPhone, or some other Kindle application, they can pick up on the page where they left off. According to Amazon.com, the Whispersync technology helped make the Kindle for iPhone application the most popular books app in Apple's App Store.
Kindle for PC offers many of the same features Kindle users have. For example, Kindle for PC users can purchase, download and read books from the Kindle Store, read the beginning of any book free before deciding to buy, and access a library of previously purchased Kindle books stored on Amazon's servers.
The Windows  7 Connection
Kindle for PC users can also read books in full color, choose from more than 10 different font sizes, adjust words per line, and add and automatically synchronize bookmarks. Windows 7 users with touchscreen PCs can zoom in and out of text with a pinch of the fingers. In the future, Amazon said Windows 7 users will also be able to turn pages with a finger swipe.
Although Kindle for PC works with Windows XP and Windows Vista, its features and functionality are optimized for Windows 7 and its Windows Touch technology. Phil Leigh, a senior analyst at Inside Digital Media, has anticipated Kindle for PC since it was discussed last month.
"This is a modest incremental step that accommodates some of the advances that Windows 7 has. You can use it with other operating systems, but it's more suitable for a touch-sensitive screen, and Windows 7 supports that," Leigh said. "It's cumbersome to read a complete book on your computer, even if it is a laptop."
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