You Can Now Gift Anyone With An E-mail Address A Kindle Book

Leena Rao

Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

Friday, November 19th, 2010

With the holiday shopping season in full swing, retailers are clamoring to publicize their sales, deals and more. Amazon issued a release today that customers can now give any of the 725,000 Kindle books to anyone with an email address. So a recipient doesn’t need a Kindle to even receive an e-book. The normally data shy Amazon also revealed that the Kindle is the most gifted item in the company’s history, and that “millions” of people are using the Kindle or Kindle apps to read books.

Of course, those without a Kindle can read their e-books on the Kindle App for the iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry and Android devices. Gifters can choose a book in the Kindle Store, and send give the e-book as a gift by simply inserting the recipient’s email address. Recipients can redeem the gift in the Kindle Store to read on any Kindle or free Kindle app.

This is clearly a way to encourage and alert Amazon shoppers and the general public to the fact that they don’t necessarily need a Kindle device to access Amazon’s e-books and use their Kindle apps for e-book reading.

There’s no doubt that Amazon is betting on the Kindle as a big holiday seller, and is launching new ways for consumers to buy into the Kindle platform. A few months ago, Amazon revealed that magazines and newspapers will be available on Kindle apps and that users will soon be able to lend e-books for a two-week period.

Company: Amazon
Website: amazon.com
Launch Date: 1994
IPO: NASDAQ:AMZN

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), is a leading global Internet company and one of the most trafficked Internet retail destinations worldwide. Amazon is one of the first companies to sell products deep into the long tail by housing them in numerous warehouses and distributing products from many partner companies. Amazon directly sells or acts as a platform for the sale of a broad range of products. These include books, music, videos, consumer electronics, clothing and household products. The majority of Amazon’s...

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