Shopping for Kindle Books on the iPhone

With all the news of Apple releasing the iPad, I've decided to jump into the EBook reader hype, and test out Amazons new Kindle for iPhone software. I've never purchased a Kindle book before, but now I'll have plenty to read when the iPad is available in Australia.

Amazon released software for Apple iPhone users way back in mid December last year. But finally, I've decided to give the kindle software a test run. The Kindle software allows Apple iPhone and iTouch and now the iPad owners to download, and read Kindle books originally designed exclusively for Amazons Kindle reading device.

Amazon have over 450,000 Kindle books available, and the number is growing fast. In the last 90 days, Amazon have listed nearly 13,000 kindle books alone. Releasing the Kindle books to the iPhone made a lot of sense to me, it's a huge sale point for Amazon because of the release of Apples iPad in America over the last week, and the iPhone software is compatible with the new iPad.

You can download the Kindle for iPhone from the iTunes App store for free. Once you start the Kindle App, you'll need to enter your Amazon account details to login. Once you're done, and the software logs in, you're presented with a list of all the Kindle eBooks purchased in the past. I've never purchased a Kindle book before, so I quickly set out to find a Free Kindle book.

When you decide use the "Get Books" button in the app, your directed to a safari browser, which is disappointing. I had to login again via the browser to buy the free book I had found. I was expecting an application like the Apple App Store, where I could easily buy apps for the phone with one click, rather than buying from a web browser on the phone.

Once I had bought the book, the iPhone was instantly updated, and I could start reading. The navigation of the books is easy on the iPhone, a simple swipe to the left or right to change pages, and home button lets me go to another book. Bookmarks are easy to set, and view, and changing the text colour or size was limited to a few simple options.

The Kindle for iPhone software is simple, really simple, but one thing it lacks is search. You can't search for something, and of course you can't copy text from the book. Hopefully, future releases will change these important missing features and also the in App purchasing issue.

Given that most iPhone apps will be compatible with the iPad, I hope that Kindle for iPhone App will work well on it. If it does, iPad owners will have two major places to buy books from -- The iBook store from Apple, and the Kindle books store from Amazon.

I think the Kindle software for the Apple iPhone / iPad is a must have item, and essential if you're buying an iPad for reading books.

You can read more about the Kindle Software for the iPhone at Amazon.com

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