Google dives into online bookstore business

The Internet giant announced this morning that it's launching an online e-book store called Google Editions where users will be able to buy digital books that can be read on a range of gadgets, including e-book readers, laptops and cell phones, according to a report from the Associated Press. The store is slated to open next year.

Google, which did not respond to a request for comment, made the announcement this morning at the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany. Press reports out of Germany note that Google plans to offer up half a million e-books from the get-go.

"Google is taking the e-book arms race to another level with their highly anticipated entry into the market," said Dan Olds, an analyst with The Gabriel Consulting Group. "The market leader, Amazon, built its position with a closed device, Kindle, which is limited to reading and buying eBooks. It will be interesting to see how well it stacks up against Google's strategy of delivering ebook capabilities via the Web to any device that can connect to the Internet. This gives Google a vastly larger addressable market than what Amazon has built up with Kindle so far."

:story: Full story: Computerworld