Amazon Announces Direct eBook Gifting (or, "In Your Face, Kobo")

VentureBeat: "I’m not sure what took so long, but Amazon today finally announced the ability to gift Kindle ebooks to anyone — just as you would any other product or service from Amazon’s online store. The company says that the Kindle is 'the most gifted item in the history of Amazon.com' but is still mum on specific sales numbers. While this announcement may help Amazon sell even more Kindles, the company stresses that no Kindle is required to enjoy its ebooks. If anything, the feature is a reminder to consumers that they can read Kindle Books on a variety of platforms — including the iPhone, iPad, Android and BlackBerry phones, as well as on Macs and Windows PCs. To gift a Kindle Book, you simply need to choose the 'Give as a Gift' option for any book in the Kindle Store, and then send the gift to anyone with an email address."

In other words, Kobo held on to this advantage for all of 12 hours or so.

Could Kindle EBook Gifting Become a Reality This Year? | News & Opinion | PCMag.com

Could Kindle EBook Gifting Become a Reality This Year? | News & Opinion | PCMag.com:

Earlier this week, Amazon introduced the new lighter, faster, brighter, cheaper and Wi-Fi-ready Kindle. I first saw the device in a private meeting with Amazon executives. Overall, I'd say it does an impressive job of stripping away the technology so you can focus on reading. Since I had Russ Grandinetti, Amazon's vice president of Kindle Content, in the room, I decided to get to the bottom of this e-book gifting issue.

I told him I had seen complaints about people not being able to gift e-books. Grandinetti smiled. "Stay tuned, we know gifting is important," he said. "We have a long experience with trying to make people's holidays really good." And, he added, Amazon is working on making this year's holidays good.