Amazon Launches Kindle Store Web App For The iPad

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Today Amazon launched an iPad-optimized Kindle Store web app. Visiting amazon.com/iPadKindleStore on the iPad will now take you to Amazon’s new web portal for buying ebooks from Apple’s tablet.

Once you’ve logged into your Amazon account, you’ll be able to browse and purchase ebooks in Mobile Safari on the iPad. Your purchases will then be pushed by Amazon to your Kindle device or Kindle iOS app.

As noted by Macworld, Amazon offered in-app purchases for ebooks from its native iOS app until Apple made the online retailer remove its purchase links last summer. iPad and iPhone users were then forced to buy ebooks from Amazon.com and have them pushed to their devices from the web. There was no optimized purchasing interface for the iPad, until now.

While it’s true that the Kindle iOS app has let users subscribe to magazines in-app, customers will have to visit Amazon’s new web store if they want to browse and purchase ebooks on the iPad. No Kindle Store web app for the iPhone has been announced, unfortunately.

Browsing the Kindle Store on the iPad is a rather enjoyable experience. The HTML5-based animations are pretty fluid, and Amazon has done a nice job of laying out the store. You can browse your recommendations in a nice cover slider and see different sections of the store from the main page, like “New & Noteworthy.” The Kindle Store web app can also be added to your iPad’s Home screen for quick reference.

The new web store for Kindle will also take you to Amazon’s Cloud Reader web app for offline reading in Mobile Safari on the iPad. By tapping the “Cloud Reader” button at the top right of the Kindle Store web app, you will be taken to Amazon’s web portal of its iOS app. You can read your ebooks there while staying in your browser.

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