We have seen online music subscription companies like Pandora and others make their way into the marketplace. We have seen Netflix gain tens of millions of users for its movie and TV show streaming service. We have more recently seen PC games get their own streaming service via OnLive. But will people go for the same kind of business model for eBooks? That's reportedly what Amazon is exploring. The Wall Street Journal (registration required) reports via unnamed sources that Amazon is currently in talks with a number book publishers to launch such a program.
Amazon certainly has a big previous history of selling books via the Internet, first from their retail web site to customers via mail order. Later it was successful in offering individual downloadable eBooks for Amazon's Kindle eReader and its many Kindle apps for the PC, Mac, iOS and Android operating systems. But this new service would reportedly let Amazon charge an annual fee for users to access a number of eBooks from Amazon's library of titles as much as they want.
It sounds good in theory, but the story reports that a number of book publishers are not keen on the idea yet. They claim that such an "all you can read" service could lower the overall value of the books. Also, some book publishers are reportedly concerned that launching such an online eBook service would cause issues with current book retailers.
Amazon is supposed to launch a 7-inch Android powered tablet PC later this fall that will connect with Amazon's web based services including its Kindle eReader library.
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