News April 27, 2009

Amazon Acquires Stanza eBook Reader

It was just a few weeks ago Jessica was writing about the excellent Stanza ebook reader for the iPhone. Today the New York Times is reporting that Amazon has bought out Lexcycle, the makers of the application.

According to the article:

Seeking to strengthen its presence on the iPhone and iPod Touch, Amazon has acquired Lexcycle, the company behind Stanza, a popular free e-book application for the iPhone, according to Lexcycle’s blog.

Stanza allows users to browse a library of around 100,000 books and periodicals for the iPhone, many of them in the ePub format — a widely accepted standard for e-books that Amazon has yet to support with its proprietary Kindle platform.

In its blog post, Lexcycle said, “We are not planning any changes in the Stanza application or user experience as a result of the acquisition. Customers will still be able to browse, buy, and read e-books from our many content partners.”

Source: New York Times
Source: TechMama via Twitter

Tags: Amazon, Apple iPhone, Mobile Phones

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About Michael Anderson

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I have loved technology for as long as I can remember - and have been a computer gamer since the PDP-10! Mobile Technology has played a major role in my life - I have used an electronic companion since the HP95LX more than 20 years ago, and have been a 'Laptop First' person since my Compaq LTE Lite 3/20 and Powerbook 170 back in 1991! As an avid gamer and gadget-junkie I was constantly asked for my opinions on new technology, which led to writing small blurbs ... and eventually becoming a reviewer many years ago. My family is my biggest priority in life, and they alternate between loving and tolerating my gaming and gadget hobbies ... but ultimately benefits from the addition of technology to our lives!

Raymond Ser

Amazon, which has its own Kindle app on the iPhone, buys Lexcycle, which makes Stanza, which ties in with the Fictionwise ebook store, which was recently acquired by Barnes and Noble, which is Amazon’s largest online competitor?!

That’s all kinds of messy…
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Drew Guttadore

Once again what do we do as consumers? I still have lots of Mobipocket stuff.. Oh well..
Jessica Fritsche

I really hate that this happened, mostly because I really love Stanza as-is and I don’t want my user experience to be compromised by the Amazon acquisition.

What of the multi-format files? I love being able to load up my non-DRMed eBooks in many flavors–LIT, PDB, HTML, TXT, etc. I have lots of classics in different formats and I will admit to breaking the DRM on my large collection of LIT files so that I could read them on my iPhone (or in uBook without needing to load up MS Reader, in my Windows Mobile days). Will I still be able to open up whatever format eBook I want and load it up onto my iPhone? That is my biggest concern.

I prefer the pricing in the Kindle store, but I really like having access to the Fictionwise store through Stanza. I hope it really does stay the same but I am not feeling too positive about it.
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Christopher Gavula

I don’t know if this is a good or bad thing yet.

I love Amazon’s prices. I love fictionwise/ereader selections.

I like Stanza as a reader, but the page turning mechanism of eReader is better, in my opinion. Stanza needs to add a “swipe” option, not just a tap option.

It will be interesting to see where all this leads.