Andre Yoskowitz
4 May 2010 13:17
According to a breaking new WSJ article, search giant Google will begin selling e-books in late June, setting up a showdown between themselves and Apple and Amazon, who are currently the major players in the e-book market with their Kindle and iBook stores.
Word of the launch comes from Chris Palma, Google's manager for strategic-partner development, today at a Google panel sponsored by the Book Industry Study Group. The panel was called: "The Book on Google: Is the Future of Publishing in the Cloud?"
Google has said they want to begin distributing e-books for over a year now, but there was never a set timetable. Where it will differentiate from Amazon and Apple is that it will "allow users to access books from a broad range of sites using multiple devices."
The new service will be called Google Editions, and will integrated into Google's massive books search service, which currently offers some scanned titles for free or previews for others with links to buy the physical copy.
There is no word on pricing or which publishers have already signed up but it is expected to be comparable to what Apple and Amazon currently charge, if not cheaper.