Amazon.com, whose Kindle for the iPhone is an iffy application with impressive content, has bought Lexcycle, whose Stanza is a much better piece of iPhone software whose content offerings, while diverse, don’t compare with the profusion of big-name best-sellers in the Kindle catalog.
Commenting on the deal at Lexcycle blog, Lexcycle’s honchos say:
We are not planning any changes in the Stanza application or user experience as a result of the acquisition. Customers will still be able to browse, buy, and read ebooks from our many content partners. We look forward to offering future products and services that we hope will resonate with our passionate readers.
I hope that the above does mean that Stanza won’t become a Kindle-only proprietary reader. But I do hope that Stanza adds the ability to access Kindle content, or the Stanza developers redo Kindle for the iPhone–in other words, that Stanza and Kindle get mashed up in a way that preserves the virtues of both. And I assume this will happen in one fashion or another. Why else would Amazon invest in an impressive piece of e-reader software?