Kindle Apps

According to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Amazon now sells more Kindle books than hardcover books in its online store. Over the past three months, for every 100 traditional books sold, Amazon has sold 143 Kindle books. And in the past month alone, for each 100 books sold, Amazon has sold 180 Kindle editions. These numbers exclude free Kindle books, but if they were included, the figures would be even higher.

While Amazon has been around for 15 years, the Kindle and Kindle store have existed for just under three. Amazon credits the success to lower prices for the ebooks (many, even new releases sell for just $10), and the availability of out-of-print books in the Kindle store. Additionally, the recent price drop and wider availability of the device and a number of mobile apps have made the store a popular entertainment destination. Are you on the Kindle train? Tell us how many books you download on a regular basis in the comments!

If you don't have the dough to throw down for a Kindle, you don't have to be left out in the cold — nearly a year after the debut of the Kindle app for the iPhone, Amazon finally released its Kindle app for BlackBerry users. This free app gives you access to more than 400,000 titles in Amazon's ebook library, plus, if you already have a Kindle in your gadget arsenal, you can sync up your ereader and smartphone to access the books you've already downloaded, remember the last page you read, and see any notes you left in your reader.

This is great for times you just can't carry your Kindle around with you or when you want to lighten your load for short trips!

With the heat of the Apple Tablet on its heels, Amazon announced earlier today that it will be opening up the Kindle to developers, making the gadget a book-reading, app-running machine. The Kindle is in more hands than ever after the holiday season, and it only makes sense to make the machine a multitasker, especially if the rumors of Apple's Tablet being a portable ereader are true.

Limited beta testing for the developers will start next month, after which the apps will be available alongside books in the Kindle Store. EA is already on board to incorporate games into the Kindle, so it's just a matter of time before we see maps, music, and location-based apps spring up on the device, making the Kindle more than just a tool for literature.