Amazon has confirmed that Kindle reader users will soon have the facility to lend Kindle books to family and friends. The precise date is yet to be confirmed – but it should be prior to the end of 2010.

It’s a very positive move which will help both e-books and e-book readers to become even more widely accepted. The public seems to have adopted e-books very rapidly. According to Amazon, e-books are now outselling traditional hardback books – by a factor of 180 to 100. It seems likely that e-book sales will outstrip even paperback sales in the near future.

The new Amazon lending scheme will allow Kindle books to be lent for a two week period. Whilst the book is “on loan” the borrower will be able to access it in exactly the same manner as if they had actually bought it. Whilst the book is out on loan, the original purchaser will be unable to access it. Pretty much the same as lending a “real” book to someone in fact.

Amazon has released a number of free Kindle apps which allow Kindle books to be read on other devices. At the moment, there are apps for the Windows PC, the Apple Mac, the iPhone, the iPad, the Blackberry smartphone and any device which runs the Android operating system. It may, at least at first glance, seem a little strange that Amazon has gone to so much effort to make their Kindle reader dispensable in this manner. However, 20% of Kindle books are currently sold via non-Kindle devices. As an ever growing number of devices using Android are released onto the market, it seems likely that this percentage is likely to grow.

Up until now, these free Kindle apps have worked only with Kindle books. Amazon will now make both newspapers and magazines available using Kindle apps. Again, the release date has not yet been confirmed – but Amazon advise that they intend to start with the Apple devices and follow up with the Android devices and then the desktop applications.

These changes may seem relatively small. However, they bring e-books much closer to the functionality of traditional printed books, which could be an important consideration for anyone making a buying decision. Kindle owners can now do practically everything with an e-book that they would with a traditional printed book – other than turning down the page corners to mark their place that is. It makes it even easier for relatively conservative book lovers to make the move over to e-books.

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