Asides

“Kindle Killer” Shortcovers officially launches

Right on schedule and as promised, Indigo Books & Music officially launched their anticiapted “Shortcovers”.

This is the next evolution for them as they enter the mobile bookstore era. Indigo sees this as a billion dollar business and internally called this the “Kindle Killer”. It’ll be interesting to see how this venture will do over the next few months.

Shortcovers is a free app for your iPhone, Blackberry and Android devices that allows you to buy a book a chapter  at a time and turns your phone into a mobile bookstore. The first chapter is on the house but if you want to continue reading it will cost you $0.99 per chapter.

I got this e-mail early this morning:
“Dear Ian,

We’re pleased to announce the launch of Shortcovers – the place to find your next great read!

We are now live:
On the web: http://www.shortcovers.com
On the iTunes Store: http://tinyurl.com/scapp
On the Blackberry and Android: http://www.shortcovers.com/mobile

Thanks to all of you who have registered and previewed Shortcovers, and those that have followed us on Twitter, our Blog and in the News. We value your interest and all of your feedback so far.

Today we launch with thousands of free samples for you to browse and read, thousands of bestselling books from the hottest authors and a wide range of great content. In the coming hours, days and weeks we are going to be loading more great books, books with chapters for sale, magazines and newspapers. We will also be listening to you, and incorporating your feedback as we roll out new features and build on what we’ve started.

While we are truly excited to have reached this milestone today, we will be working tirelessly to fulfill our vision – that is, to enable you to find your next great read, in an instant, from any mobile device. Today, our journey has only just begun.
Sincerely,
The Shortcovers Team”

Make us proud Shortcovers… we wish you all the luck and hoping you become another Canadian success story!