Today, Flipkart has rolled a new service for Android users. It has started selling e-books from its Flyte store. Flipkart comes across as one of those companies that does not want to be acquired and rather build a large online retail business business. In other words, it wants to be the ebay or Amazon.com of India. Early this year in March, Flipkart introduced selling music in the form of DRM free MP3 files.
For a company that started selling books online, it was only a matter of time it started selling e-books.
Flipkart’s e-book store: How it works
The e-books being sold on Flipkart are available only on Android at the moment. It can be downloaded upto 6 times of different devices.
I checked the prices of some of the books and they seem to be a bit less than their printed versions. There seem to be over 64,000 books available on the store. That is actually a very small number but it should soon see a lot more books available.
There are over 4000 free e-books at the moment available for download. Many of these free e-books are all time classics.
Payment options for the books include online banking, debit and credit cards along with Flipkart Wallet. Users will be able to preview upto 10% of the book before actually purchasing it.
At the moment, the app is only available on Android, but I am sure Flipkart will introduce this on other platforms like Apple’s iOS and Windows Store soon.
As tablets keep getting more popular in India, the e-book business will actually get more traction.
Do drop in your comments.
Link: Flipkart e-Books | Android App
5 Comments
Since many Indian books are not currently available on Amazon e-book store, this surely is a welcoming move by FK.
Few things that concern me though –
– Only available for Android – FK should have simultaneously launched for all major platforms. Will be a disappointment for many
– “can be downloaded upto 6 times of different devices” – this surely doesn’t makes any sense. Even Amzn doesn’t have any such terms, at the moment, at least.
Pros as per me
– 10% book readable before purchase
– Availability of free books as well, didn’t expect while I started reading the post. 🙂
Thanks for sharing, Aditya!
@DJain1989
About the concerns, considering this is India and Android rules here, they are wise to bring it to Android while its in Beta. 6 times download limit I am sure will be increased going ahead.
Main concern for me after doing a bit more of searching is that some of the ebooks are actually same priced as their physical paper counterparts. That sort of defeats the purpose of buying ebooks.
“ebooks are actually same priced as their physical paper counterparts”
I have a feeling that, that won’t be a concern anymore couple of months down the line (once the 6 d/l limit gets withdrawn). At least for me.
thats amazing news for all of us
thanx for sharing
Flipkart is amazing, thanks for sharing.