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Just when the competition between Amazon's (AMZN) Kindle device and Apple's (AAPL) iPad tablet were starting to heat up, a third and powerful entrant may throw itself into the ring next month. Google (GOOG) is tapped to start selling digital books come June.
What devices will be able to read these digital books may be a mystery (for now), but you can bet that Google's Android operating system may be behind a new device sold in consumer electronics stores, and perhaps Google's website itself.
What does this do to Amazon and Apple? Amazon's share price, which is sitting pretty at just under $130 (5% below its 52-week high), won't budge. Apple, which is headed towards $300 from many perspectives, also may not see a decrease. Why? Google is late. It's not first-to-market here, and the iPad has already sold over one million units.
Amazon's Kindle already has 400,000 electronic books and periodicals available right now. Google, which knows the power of being a first mover (look at Internet search done right), is not in this position now. Unless it changes the game with its digital books service, this may be 1) an experiment for the Internet giant or 2) a late entry into getting its Android operating system past smartphones and into e-book readers (and then more areas).
This may also pad Google's bottom line, but it's hard to think it will be significant in the short term. Other areas like Google TV and now this digital books service will certainly add some revenue to Google's quarterly numbers, but the kind of revenue diversification Google continues to seek will arrive slowly over time. In the digital books space, it'll be just another small leg.
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