By April 29, 2009

Amazon buys Stanza

image Stanza is an eBook reader for iPhone (see also our review of Stanza for iPhone). Stanza is made by small company called "LexCycle", that has been just required by Amazon!

There is no official press releases at websites of Amazon and LexCycle, but everything is already well known: Amazon is buying LexCycle despite having its own eBook reader – Kindle for iPhone.

So what is the situation? Stanza is an eBook reader for iPhone and is also offered in versions for PC and Mac. It is nice because it allows you to put any text or website into an eBook that you can read on your iPhone. Stanza is also free. Personally we don’t like Stanza because it doesn’t support lookup of words through dictionaries but it does support commercial eBooks from eReader.com service (even though eReader.com has its own eBook reader for iPhone, see also our review of eBook reader for iPhone).

So what will change? Nothing much: Stanza will operate as it operates and since Kindle for iPhone is not offered for whole world but only USA and it anyway doesn’t offer magazines like the real Kindle, Stanza will be good completion.

It is interesting to note that Amazon previously had purchased Mobipocket.com company – also specialized in selling eBooks and making eBook software for many platforms and this company still operators despite being owned by Amazon. We would expect that Mobipocket will release its own eBook reader for iPhone but it looks like in this situation (our prediction!) probably Stanza team will be told to view also eBooks from Mobipocket e-bookstore.

It would be nonsense for one company to have 3 eBook readers for one platform: Kindle for iPhone, Mobipocket for iPhone and Stanza for iPhone, so some consolidation is possible, although knowing Amazon – how big it is – probably they will be separate. It is noticeable that Mobipocket – previously famous from having eBook readers for many smartphone platforms – doesn’t have yet version for iPhone… so this slowness might be the reason why Amazon decided to buy Stanza – probably the most popular eBook reader on iPhone.

On the other hand, since Amazon now owns 2 most popular eBook readers on iPhone – it may be discouraging for competition, so this takeover might be not that good for iPhone users after all.

To learn more about Stanza visit www.lexcycle.com.

Posted in: Phones

About the Author:

Seasoned tech blogger. Host of the Tech Addicts podcast.
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