Last updated on December 13, 2015
For the past decade, Amazon has dominated the quickly expanding world of electronic books. Devices such as the Kindle, the Nook and the Sony Reader have virtually driven brick-and-mortar stores out of business, as many readers are now increasingly favoring electronic books rather than physical copies. With that in mind, it’s interesting that the increasing popularity of Google Play for electronic book publishers has gone virtually unnoticed.
Amazon and the Electronic Book
Amazon currently captures over 80 percent of the market share for electronic book publishing, by far above Apple, Barnes and Noble and other competitors. Amazon was able to secure this market quickly by reaching out to electronic book publishers and authors and making it easier than ever to publish on their platform. Amazon has no true competition and has essentially monopolized this extremely profitable market. Many bestsellers have emerged straight through Amazon rather than go through the major print publishing companies. These self-published books have increased drastically in popularity over the past few years.
Books on the Android
Using an Android device as an electronic book reader is an excellent choice. Kindle can actually be used on the Droid through an application, thereby allowing anyone with an Android device to benefit from Kindle books as well as the Google Play store. Users on an Android device with access to the Google Play store actually have the best possible access to the electronic book market.
Almost quietly, Google Play has slowly been improving upon its book publishing service. Google Books has always existed as a directory system for already published books, to connect readers to places where they could purchase books and look up authors. Google Play is now a direct authoring system, and it has been gaining steady traction.
Through Google Play, writers and publishers can post electronic books directly into the Android marketplace and Android devices can be used for electronic reading. This taps directly into the extensive Android electronic reader market; there are perhaps dozens of electronic readers that run Android. Android may, in fact, be the only device that could compete with the Kindle due to its wide reach.
It should be noted that the Kindle Fire actually runs a modified version of the Android platform. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean access to the Google application store; actually, the device needs to be rooted to install the Google Play Store, and this is likely to avoid this type of direct competition.
What’s Holding Google Play Books Back?
As the largest device platform in the world, what’s actually holding the Google Android back from becoming the most remarkable electronic reader technology in the world? There’s no consistency regarding hardware; there are dozens of electronic book readers produced using Android’s platform and all have their own drawbacks and benefits. Compare this with the sleek designs of the Amazon Kindle, which reduce consumer confusion.
Further, the actual publishing of the platform isn’t driving popularity. “Amazon’s brilliance was in bringing in writers and publishers, who then promoted their work,” says Jason Hope, technology expert. “Google has failed to market its product towards publishers or writers, and in turn the audience has not appeared.”
The Google Play publishing platform is so complex and obscure that many publishers shy away from it completely. Without writers, the audience simply isn’t there. By simplifying the publishing platform and encouraging writers to publish to it, Google Play and the Android could quickly shift the electronic book monopoly in their favor.
The Marketplace Now
Google does quite a lot well, and the electronic book market may very well be one of these things. With Google Play’s already created infrastructure, Google could easily be poised to sweep the electronic book market out from under Amazon’s feet. However, that would take a lot of work; Amazon is already extremely entrenched.
As it stands, however, electronic book enthusiasts will find that there are some remarkable electronic books available in the Google Play store and that there are a multitude of electronic book readers that use the Android platform. The Kindle, Nook and Sony Reader are not the only options available for those who want to settle down for a quick read.
About Author: Amy Taylor is a business and technology writer. Amy began her career as a small business owner in Phoenix, AZ. She enjoys writing about business technology trends. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys hiking with her Alaskan Malamute, Sam.
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