A confusing picture of whether 'traditional' or ebooks are winning the 'format war' is further cluttered by a report about slowing Kindle sales.The report(paywall) by the Sunday Times, revisited by theMail Online, suggests that traditional books are now on the rise as ebook sales fall. The news is backed by word of an 8.9 percent increase in paperback sales, and a fall of 7.5 percent in ebooks (in the United States).
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Do you own a Samsung Galaxy smartphone or tablet? If you do, Samsung and Amazon's new 'Kindle for Samsung' service offers you free ebooks. The service, announced today, comes in the shape of a custom-built app which you can have installed on any Galaxy device running Android version 4.0 or later (if you need to check your Android version, go into the Settings app, and look for the 'About Tablet/Phone' option).
If your device is up to scratch, the Kindle for Samsung app is available for install via Samsung Apps (not Google Play), and offers users a choice of one free title per month from a selection of four. That's not all it offers; there are around 500,000 ebooks, newspapers and magazines from the Kindle store too.
The service includes amazon's WhisperSync functionality, alongside the extra features 'Worry Free Archive' (a backup of your titles to the cloud), and Time to Read (which estimates how long you will take to finish your chapter).
Both Amazon and Samsung seem rather delighted about the partnership, and if we're honest free books - digital or otherwise - are always an interesting proposition.
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Here are some quotes to make it all official:
“We’re delighted to be able to deepen our long-standing relationship with Amazon and offer Kindle for Samsung as the perfect app for reading on a smart device. With this service we demonstrate our commitment to creating and broadening key content partnerships that deliver rich and personalised experiences for our customers.”
~ Lee Epting, VP of Samsung Media Solution Centre Europe.
" “With Kindle for Samsung, people around the world will have instant access to the best digital bookstore and reading experience, including more than half a million titles that are only available from the Kindle Store, and innovative features like Whispersync, Time to Read and much more.”
~ Jorrit Van der Meulen, Vice President of EU Kindle.
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