Last April, Amazon announced it would offer Kindle books at public libraries by the end of 2011. Amazon still won’t give a definite date, but Steve Potash, the CEO of OverDrive (which is providing the technology behind the library lending feature) gave a wink-wink sort of clue at a recent public event (look at the first letter of each summary point):
Throughout the conference, CEO Steve Potash, looking like a kid with a delicious secret, kept saying “soon” and, “I’m not allowed to announce a date yet.” During the final session, he delivered a broad hint, by summarizing the main points of his “Crystal Ball Report”:
Streamlining (both downloading and ordering)
Explosion (we have gone from two reading devices to 85 and more are coming)
Premium (the library catalog as the most premium, value-added site on the Web)
Traffic (enormous growth coming by year’s end)
It sort of reminds me of my favorite act that Arnold Schwarzenegger did while governer of California—issuing a veto letter with a hidden message for his opponents.
But back to Amazon, I’m still convinced that library lending has to happen by October because that’s when Pottermore will start selling Harry Potter ebooks, and OverDrive is handling the technology behind that as well. Although the two platforms aren’t tightly related, it seems to make sense as far as cost to develop and roll out the services at the same time.
“Kindle Library Lending To Launch In September?” [paidContent]
(Photo: gypsy999)