14 DAY TRIAL // It took a couple of months, but Amazon has finally gotten around to getting the Kindle Cloud Reader, its web-based app, to run on Mozilla Firefox, the second most popular browser in the world.
But that's not deterring Amazon from making a big announcement out of it, boasting that it makes using the Kindle Cloud Reader easier for more people.
There's no word on Internet Explorer support, but it's 'coming soon,' even though it is used by half the people online on the planet. So far, it's been available on Safari and Google Chrome.
"Amazon announced that Kindle Cloud Reader, the HTML5-based web app that lets customers read their Kindle books in their web browser, is now available for Mozilla Firefox so the hundreds of millions of Firefox users can start reading their Kindle books instantly, simply by opening their web browser," Amazon said.
The Kindle Cloud Reader is actually quite an interesting app, it's built entirely on HTML5 and it's very, very slick. It moves fast, it looks good, it's everything that a modern web app should be.
Users have the option of hitting the Amazon Kindle store and buy any book they want. They can then browse their entire online library in the app and read any book they've purchased or added.
Of course, it's not love for technology or for the open web that made Amazon release the Kindle Cloud Reader, it's love of money and control, the prime reason why the Kindle Cloud Reader exists is so that Amazon can bypass Apple's App Store.
Apple's policy of requiring a 30 percent stake of any money being made from apps on its platform, be it from subscriptions or in this case, from selling ebooks, has made it impossible for Amazon to offer a native app for the iPhone or the iPad.