14 DAY TRIAL // Google's been running a full-blown ebook store for half a year now, but there's little chance of gaining a significant piece of the market without a dedicated ereader to integrate the store, like Amazon does with the Kindle. But Google's open approach has some advantages, it is now announcing the first device to come with the Google eBooks built-in.
"The iriver Story HD is the first e-reader integrated with the open Google eBooks platform, through which you can buy and read Google eBooks over Wi-Fi," Pratip Banerji, product manager for Google Books, wrote.
"It includes over-the-air access to hundreds of thousands of Google eBooks for sale and more than 3 million for free," he added.
"With the Story HD you can now browse, buy and read Google eBooks with your e-reader through Wi-Fi, rather than downloading and transferring them from computer to e-reader with a cord as you can already do with more than 80 compatible devices," he explained.
Google doesn't build devices, but it does partner with those that do. The Google TV project is one example, granted not a very successful one. The Nexus line of phones is another, but Google gets to dictate pretty much all aspects of those phones.
With the iriver Story HD, Google didn't have much to do with the hardware. However, Google provides an open API and tools to integrate its eBook store and iriver built a version of the store into the device.
Other than that, the Story HD has little to differentiate it in the crowded market, it boasts a higher resolution display than its competitors, but doesn't have much else to set it apart.
Whether the Google eBooks store integration will be enough to lure users remains to be seen, it does have some unique advantages though, like the ability to pick up where you left off on your laptop or phone.