May 18th is starting with some great news for book lovers. Amazon has just announced that it would be releasing the official Kindle application for Android, available "soon".

The Kindle app is already available on the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, PC, Mac, and BlackBerry, so Android is quite late to the party. Better late than never though - there is no WinMo app anywhere in sight.

Main Features

The Android application is, surprisingly, not going to be shy on features. In fact, some of them will one-up its counterparts on other platforms:

access all of your Kindle books without your Kindle

all of your Kindle books without your Kindle buy books right from within the Kindle app from a special Android optimized store and get them auto-delivered wirelessly - a feature that is not available on all devices

right from within the Kindle app from a and get them - a feature that is not available on all devices synchronize last page read and annotations between all devices using Amazon's "Whispersync" technology

using Amazon's "Whispersync" technology preview books by reading their beginnings for free before buying

In order to use the app, you will need to use Android 1.6+ and have an SD card (Droid Incredible users, take note - your phone doesn't come with an SD card by default).

My Thoughts

We have one word for this: FINALLY! Amazon has started to realize that instead of competing with the growing number of gadgets (smartphones, eBook readers, tablets, etc) and locking down eBooks to its own Kindle device, it would be a lot more beneficial to extend support to those platforms.

And do you know what else this means? Us, Spring Design Alex owners, will be finally able to buy Kindle books, no matter if Spring Design allows us or not (remember, Alex has been rooted).

Excitement, can you feel it?

Other Features

Here are the rest of the features Amazon has promised us:

Adjust the text size, add bookmarks, and view the annotations you created on your Kindle, computer, or other Kindle-compatible device

Read in portrait or landscape mode

Tap on either side of the screen or flick to turn pages

Search and browse more than 500,000 books, including more than 96 of 110 New York Times bestsellers. If you are a non-U.S. customer, book availability may vary

Find New York Times® Best Sellers and new releases from $9.99

Get free book samples. Read the beginning of books for free before you decide to buy

Books you purchase can also be read on a Kindle, computer, or other Kindle-compatible mobile devices

Kindle newspapers, magazines and blogs are currently not available on Kindle for Android

Supports Droid Incredible (with an SD card?), Google Nexus One, HTC MyTouch, Motorola CLIQ, Motorola Droid, and many more Android phones

You can submit your email to receive a notification when the Kindle app is released here: http://www.amazon.com/kindleforandroid.

Source: Press Release