Google Editions Shifts E-book Focus Away from Devices

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Google (GOOG) showed a little more leg Thursday regarding its long-term e-book plans. Instead of targeting dedicated e-book readers, such as Amazon’s Kindle or Sony’s Reader, the search giant indicated it aims to add e-books to its strategy of moving content and applications off devices and into the cloud by making the browser the primary platform for reading, distributing and publishing digital books. While Google’s announcement adds to the growing list of challenges to Amazon’s Kindle empire, its browser-based strategy represents a more fundamental challenge to Amazon than mere competition for e-book sales.

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Paul Sweeting

Principal , Concurrent Media Strategies

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