Amazon expands Kindle to the PC

Amazon has expanded its Kindle digital book service to the PC.

[See our photo gallery of the Kindle International Edition here]

The company said that its new Kindle Books application will allow Windows PC users to purchase, download and read e-book titles from Amazon's Kindle Store service.

Additionally, the PC application will support Amazon's Whispersync service, which allows users to automatically sync their bookmarks or current pages across PCs, Kindle tablet devices or iPhone/iPod Touch handsets.

"Kindle for PC is the perfect companion application for folks who own a Kindle or Kindle DX," said Amazon's Kindle vice president Ian Freed.

"Kindle for PC is also a great way for people around the world to read the most popular books of today even if they don’t yet have a Kindle."

The PC application will be offered as a free download and will support Windows 7, Vista and XP systems.

The news comes as Amazon is suddenly finding itself with a fresh crop of competitors in the e-book reader market.

Earlier this week hardwear vendor Spring Design entered the market with its Alex device, while publisher/retailer Barnes and Noble presented an even more serious challenge to Kindle when it unveiled its Nook reader device.

Both devices are based on the Android operating system from Google, which is further pressing Amazon with the announcement of its Editions online retail service.