Amazon is inviting developers to build iPhone-style apps on its Kindle ebook reader, in what is seen as a pre-emptive strike against the expected launch next week of an Apple tablet computer.
Developers are promised the capacity to "build and upload active content that will be available in the Kindle Store later this year". The first developers will be allowed to join a test programme – a limited beta – from next month.
The Kindle development kit page is soliciting email addresses for applicants to join the beta programme. It offers the same 70% royalties available from Apple – minus "delivery fees" for using the Kindle's Whispernet wireless system, which gives Kindle owners in the US free access to shop for books and soon, presumably, apps.
Early releases are said to include an active Zagat restaurant guide, word games and puzzles from Sonic Boom, and games from Electronic Arts.
Amazon also looks to be following Apple by planning to filter apps through a set of guidelines, unlike Google's Android app platform which has no restrictions. It says that it will ban "voice over IP functionality, advertising, offensive materials, collection of customer information without express customer knowledge and consent, or usage of the Amazon or Kindle brand in any way", but adds that it will "refine" these guidelines during the beta.
This is the second time in as many days that Amazon has improved its Kindle offering, while Apple appears to be getting ready to move into Amazon's territory: there are widespread reports that it is negotiating with publishers to carry their content on its forthcoming tablet.
Yesterday Amazon doubled the royalties available through its Digital Text Platform, which lets authors and small publishers upload books for sale on the Kindle, again to an Apple-style 70%-30% split. Books have to meet several conditions – including being priced less than $9.99, and at least 20% less than the physical version – to qualify for the higher royalty rate. Last Friday it opened Digital Text Platform to authors outside the US. It has also, without public fanfare, allowed books to be published on DTP without digital rights management, a source of some contention in the past.
The requirements of the Whispernet system have so far limited the Kindle's international spread: since last October, you can buy a version that will work in the UK, but it comes from Amazon US, priced in dollars, and has book prices raised to compensate for higher wireless costs.
Readers wanting to split the difference between Amazon and Apple can already buy a Kindle app for the iPhone.
