This new feature comes with a monthly price tag of $9.99 and allows for unlimited book and audio book downloads.
For avid readers and people who adore listening to their books on MP3 players and in their cars during their commutes, every day, Amazon has opened up a brand new mobile commerce and online shopping service.
That said, this one differs from its Prime Instant Video and Prime Music “add-ons” because of its subscription fee.
This new online and mobile commerce service has been called Kindle Unlimited and it provides access to as many of the over 600,000 ebooks and several thousand audio books available over the massive internet marketplace for the cost of $9.99 per month. The service has now become available to users of Kindle hardware devices, with the Kindle cloud reader, or with the existing Kindle apps from Amazon.
The Kindle Unlimited mobile commerce service is also offering a free thirty day trial membership.
Customers who pay for their subscription will also be granted a free three month trial of the Audible audio books service. According to the Amazon Kindle division’s senior vice president, Russ Grandinetti, “Kindle Unlimited is also by far the most cost-effective way to enjoy audiobooks and eBooks together.”
Grandinetti went on to explain that “With thousands of Whispersync for Voice-enabled audiobooks to choose from, you can easily switch between reading and listening to a book, allowing the story to continue even when your eyes are busy.”
It is important to note that not every book that is available on the Amazon website is included in the Kindle Unlimited service’s free downloads. Though many of the most popular books – ranging from Lord of the Rings to Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and even the complete Harry Potter series – are all downloadable through the service, included in the subscription price, not every major book publisher is supported.
Moreover, while this could mean that there will be some titles that will be left out of the “unlimited” mobile commerce downloads, what has many people around the world feeling frustrated is that the service is, at least for the moment, available exclusively to people in the United States.