Google Editions nears launch
Google Editions, the search giants own brand foray into the electronic books market, has been confirmed for an “early” 2011 launch following a succession of delays.
The bid to introduce a new format in the increasingly contested ebook market had been dogged by legal and technical issues but these have now been resolved.
It will go head to head with Apple’s iBooks and Amazon’s Kindle but observers believe Editions will have an edge owing to its compatibility with any device that has a web browser.
The internet giant is eschewing its own dedicated reader in order to create mass appeal, profiting instead solely from the sale of books through Google accounts.
Google is set to focus its efforts on independent booksellers, offering publishers a 70% cut on sales and giving them the freedom to set prices.
The firm is currently in the process of digitising all of the world’s 150 million books, a laborious and legally fraught task but which is now 10% complete.