This spring Google hinted at a book service called Google Editions. Word on the street was that it would come out in “June or July”. That of course didn’t happen.
Now we’re hearing that Google Editions will launch sometime in autumn. That is a pretty vague timeframe, and you can’t help but wonder if Google is being careful with when and how they launched new programs. This summer, Google retired Google Wave, an applications that was presented, and even met, with great fanfare. Wave fizzled and went nowhere.
Think of how the digital music market has grown in the past few years. Now think of how that has helped Apple. iTunes and the iPod have revolutionized how we listen to and enjoy music, and pushed shares of Apple ever higher. Amazon must be hoping that the Kindle is the iPod of books. And Google surely wants to muscle in on that market as well.
