Last week, the web was a’buzz with speculation that the arrival of larger, more powerful Kindle DX meant an impending handheld war between Amazon and Apple. Truly, the online retail giant had beaten Cupertino, whom everyone nows is readying a tablet of their own, to the digital punch.

Though war might be inevitable, today’s news would seem to indicate that the two companies are still buddy-buddy. Computer Reseller News reports that Amazon has optimized the Kindle Store for iPhone (iTunes) for viewing on Apple’s popular iPhone and iPod touch, which can be interpreted as a friendly gesture given that the companies can be seen as competitors in this hardware segment.

“The response to Kindle for iPhone has been tremendous. Customers love the convenience of accessing their Kindle books whenever and wherever they want, plus the convenience of not having to remember or locate their last page read because Whispersync does that for them,” said Ian Freed, vice president, Amazon Kindle. “The most common feedback we heard from customers was that they wanted a better experience for purchasing new Kindle books from their iPhones. We’ve been working hard to respond to that feedback with a new Web site optimized for Safari on iPhone and we’re excited to do that today.”

“I do think that Apple will come out with a device and among its uses will be as an e-book reader. But Amazon’s business is distributing content and selling stuff,” says Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research This tidy but small device is for Amazon a secondary market, just as the iTunes business is secondary for Apple.”

Eventually, somebody will create a better, faster, cheaper tablet device that’s a fine e-book reader, as well. Perhaps that somebody will even be our favorite fruit company, after all the iPod touch on steroids is an all but forgone conclusion.

Until then, however, coopetition between Apple and Amazon will continue and that’s a good thing™…

What’s your take?

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Entry was posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 5:26 pm under Free Apps, Internet, News, iPhone, iPod Touch.  Print This Post

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