Amazon launches Kindle MatchBook

Once upon a time, books used to be physical objects. They were printed on pages made of paper, and bound, and each one took up space on a shelf somewhere, and carrying one or more books with you to school, or to the park, or on a vacation required some degree of manual effort. Then Amazon introduced the Kindle. Now, Amazon is launching Kindle MatchBook to help customers transform their investment in old-fashioned books, and add those titles to their digital library.

Kindle MatchBook lets you buy the digital Kindle version of physical printed books you’ve purchased from Amazon–freeing you from the burden of carrying the book around, and enabling you to add those titles to the digital library in your Kindle or Kindle app on a mobile device. Amazon has designed the Kindle MatchBook program to cover all books purchased since 1995–the year Amazon opened its virtual doors and started selling books online. It’s up to the authors and publishers whether they want to be involved in Kindle MatchBook, though, so many of the books you’ve purchased from Amazon over the last couple decades may not be available through the program.

When Amazon first announced the Kindle Matchbook concept at the beginning of September, there were approximately 10,000 titles included in the program. That figure has ballooned to 70,000 in just a few weeks…

Read the full article on IT Knowledge Exchange: Amazon launches Kindle MatchBook.