Earlier today, Google unveiled the long-rumored entry into the e-book market with Google eBooks. The basic idea was to provide an entirely web-based e-book platform, which would be accessible from any device with a browser. Books are currently available on the Android, Barnes & Noble Nook, iPhone, iPod Touch, Sony eReader, and online. Android devices will be required to have OS 2.1 or higher to access Google e-books from their smartphone. One of the key things to note here though is that Amazon’s Kindle is noton the list of supported devices and although it is perfectly capable of using Google eBooks, you won’t be able to use it.

The eBooks service works in any Webkit-compatible browser. The reader itself is built in Java and will be accessible on mobile devices via the browser or the standalone apps. The Android app is currently available and the iOS app will be coming soon.

Google is launching their eBooks market with the support of around 4,00 or 35,000 publishing partners. 4,000 marks the figure for the US launch, but internationally, they are working with the remainder of that figure for a predicted Q1 2011 launch. All of the major publishers are signed on and will be providing a total of around 300,000 in-copyright works, which include newly released titles as well.

Google is also proud to be working with university, academix, textbook, and professional publishes. They have already worked out deals with the American Booksellers Association, Powell’s, and Alibris as well. There is always the immense library of public domain works, over two and a half million at the moment, which swells the total Google eBooks count to around three million.

As of right now, GoodReaders is their first and only at launch affiliate network partner. eBooks services will be tied into the social reading site and the revenue will be split three ways. The major publishes will be taking 70% of the list price while others will be taking 52% and the many independent bookstores and publishers Google has negotiated with have their own undisclosed rates. The store currently has around 3 million books available, many of which are around a $9.99 price point that we usually see on Amazon.

Are you interested in Google eBooks? Have you already hopped the bandwagon? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!

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[Sources: Google eBooks; CrunchGear]

Authors: _GadgetNews

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