Andre Yoskowitz
6 Dec 2010 18:54
Google has finally delivered on their promise of the Google eBookstore, starting the service with 3 million books available in a number of formats.
The ebooks will be playable on the Nook, iPad and others, but notably not on the Amazon Kindle.
Google's entry to the market could challenge Amazon's monopoly, which is estimated at 72 percent of the market in 2010. The Kindle store will sell an estimated $250 million worth of ebooks this year.
One analyst firm believes Google's service, along with Apple's iBook Store, should turn Amazon's share of the ebook market to 35 percent by 2015, down from the current 72.
The books available through the eBookstore are priced almost identically to books available through Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble, with some exceptions.
Google promises the largest collection of ebooks online, thanks mainly to a long-standing process of scanning out-of-print library books. Google started the process in 2004.
Outside of downloading the ebooks, Google also offers a free "Web Reader" which allows you to view the ebooks wherever you have a computer with Internet access.