As well as providing books for sale, Google has made some of its vast collection of out-of-copyright books available for free, including books from Jane Austen, Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. The store is presently open only in the United States. It will open in other countries early in 2011.
As with e-books from Amazon, Google's e-books are priced significantly lower than their print counterparts. Google's e-book prices are roughly equivalent to Amazon's, with most popular books falling in the US$9.99 to $12.99 range.
Google e-books are available on virtually every platform except Amazon's Kindle, although Google notes on its site that it is open to supporting Kindle devices in the future. Readers can download and install the Google e-book reading app for free on any smartphone with an Android platform, as well as on Apple's iPad, iPhone or iPod touch.
Google e-books also can be read on dedicated e-book readers that support the Adobe eBook platform, including the Barnes & Noble Nook and Readers from Sony. More than 85 devices support the Adobe eBook platform, Google notes.
Read the full article on E-Commerce Times here.
