Amazon brings in-app Kindle purchases to iPad

Amazon has launched a web-based version of its native Kindle app, which allows its customers to buy and access books via the iPad and other devices.

The Kindle Cloud Reader, released on Wednesday, effectively circumvents changes in the Apple App Store terms of service, which came in on 26 July. These prevented Amazon from selling books via its iOS-based app without giving Apple a 30-percent cut of each sale.

"We are excited to take this leap forward in our 'Buy Once, Read Everywhere' mission and help customers access their library instantly from anywhere," said Dorothy Nicholls, director for Amazon Kindle, in a statement. "We have written the application from the ground up in HTML 5, so that customers can also access their content offline directly from their browser."

Amazon said the web app was designed with the iPad's touch interface in mind. However, the Cloud Reader is not usable on an iPhone, nor on any other handset.

"Without even leaving the app, customers can start shopping in the Kindle Store and will find a... shopping experience built specifically for iPad's Safari browser," Amazon said.

We have written the application from the ground up in HTML 5, so that customers can also access their content offline directly from their browser.

– Dorothy Nicholls, Amazon

With Kindle Cloud Reader, people can access e-books they already own and buy new titles from Amazon's Kindle Store. It works with the Google Chrome or Safari web browsers running on Linux, Mac or Windows machines, as well as on Safari on an iOS 4.x iPad. It was already possible to buy and read Amazon e-books using a native Kindle Reader app on the Android platform.

In addition, Amazon said it will bring the cloud-based app to the Internet Explorer, Firefox and the BlackBerry PlayBook browsers, as well as to "other mobile browsers" in the coming months.

In July, Amazon reported a 50-percent rise in year-on-year sales. Contributing to the strong performance were sales of Kindle 3G with Special Offers, which company chief executive Jeff Bezos singled out as the fastest-selling version of the e-reader. That particular model, which is not available in the UK, costs less to purchase but displays advertising at the bottom of the screen and shows sponsored screensavers.