No magic required to perform this amazing feat.
No need to spend all that money on a Kindle if you have your laptop handy. It's one less thing to carry on those business trips, and who would go on vacation over the upcoming holidays without their computer?
Amazon has a new app for the personal computer that will bring Kindle publications to anyplace that can access the site.
Log on and get a free download for your old-fashioned Windows XP operating system, and you can buy all the books you like. Amazon will store them for you on their servers, in your own electronic library. Your well-to-do cubicle neighbor at the office can show off his financial largesse with a posh Kindle, but you don't have to be deprived of the expansive collection of e-books when you have a PC that will work just as well.
The more available the e-book, the more sales that can be generated, and that puts a nice boost into Amazon's bottom line.
Those who are upgrading to Windows 7 will have access to more features, including the all important page turning function that works by a swipe of the finger, quite similar to the motions a reader makes to turn a physical page.
To the publishing world, it's a mixed set of emotions that greet the news. At $9.99, Amazon's e-books are downright cheap compared to the cost of a hard copy, and that means less profit. They've responded by holding up the release of electronic versions of new titles, in the hope that everyone will rush out to buy the more expensive version from a book shop.
At the same time, making it this easy to buy a book anywhere, anytime, and have it in hand (so to speak) at once sounds like the sort of arrangement that could sell more books, even at a lower price.
Will volume be the salvation of publishing, or will the heavy discount send the major publishing houses to the poor house?
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