ASUS and Amazon team up to pre-install Kindle for PC on netbooks and laptops

ASUS sells tons of laptops through Amazon.com. Amazon happens to offer a Kindle for PC application. Heck, why not team up and pre-install the app on the ASUS netbooks and laptops that are sold through the online e-tailer? Sure makes a lot of sense to us, and apparently it did to both Amazon and ASUS. Starting today, select laptops -- including the Eee PC 1005PE and UL30 -- will be sold with the e-book app loaded up. Frankly, we're not the biggest fans of pre-installed software cluttering up fresh screens, but this sort of partnership surely makes sense with certain devices -- in particular, convertible tablets that you'd use to read. You know what would also make sense? ASUS preloading some sort of Amazon application on its Eee Pad. That's just us playing make believe, but it seems like the two companies are certainly talking. We're set on getting our fill of ASUS tablet news at Computex next week, but in the meantime hit the break for the full Amazon / ASUS PR.

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ASUS Pre-installs Kindle for PC Application on Award-Winning Netbooks and Notebooks

Customers using Kindle for PC can enjoy over 540,000 books, including New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases, on ASUS' latest netbook and notebook products

FREMONT, California (May 24, 2010) - ASUS today announced that Amazon's "Kindle for PC" application, which lets readers enjoy Kindle books on their personal computers (PC), will come pre-installed on select ASUS netbooks and notebooks sold at Amazon.com. Kindle for PC enables customers to discover and read from over 540,000 books in the Kindle Store -the largest selection of the most popular books that people want to read -- including New York Times Bestsellers and New Releases priced from $9.99.

Like all Kindle apps, Kindle for PC includes Amazon's Whispersync technology, which saves and synchronizes a customer's notes, highlights, bookmarks and last page read across their Kindle, Kindle DX, PC, Mac and other devices* so customers always have their reading material with them and never lose their place whether at home or on-the-go.

"We are thrilled that customers will begin to enjoy the Kindle for PC experience right out of the box with ASUS devices," said Ben Thacker, VP Sales and Product Management, Systems Business Group, North American Channel, ASUS Computer International. "Kindle is something our customers have been asking for and by pre-installing Kindle for PC on select long battery life products, we believe we are providing our customers an even richer PC experience. Working with a customer-centric company such as Amazon and pre-installing their Kindle for PC application is a natural fit for ASUS."

With the free Kindle for PC pre-installed on select ASUS netbooks and notebooks, consumers can take advantage of the following features and more:

· Purchase, download, and read more than 540,000 books, including 96 of 110 New York Times Bestsellers, plus tens of thousands of the most popular classics for free directly from their ASUS device. Bestsellers such as "Backlash" by Aaron Allston, "Big Girl" by Danielle Steel, "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" by Rebecca Skloot and "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown, and hundreds of thousands of other popular books are $9.99 or less in the Kindle Store

· Browse by genre or author, and take advantage of all the features that they enjoy in the Kindle Store, including Amazon.com customer reviews, personalized recommendations and editorial reviews
· Read the beginning of books for free before they decide to buy
· Access their Kindle books even if they don't have Kindle with them
· Synchronize last page read between their Kindle, Kindle DX, PC, Mac, and other devices*
· Create new highlights, notes and bookmarks, and manage those created on their Kindle
· Choose from three different color modes: read in white, sepia, or black color modes and adjust the brightness of the display from within the application
· Choose from more than 10 different font sizes and adjust words per line
· Read books using full-screen mode of their PC

"We think customers are going to love the convenience and simplicity of having instant access to Kindle for PC from their ASUS device and access to a massive selection of Kindle books," said Jay Marine, Director, Amazon Kindle. "Kindle for PC lets customers enjoy over 540,000 books in the Kindle Store even if they don't yet have a Kindle, and its the perfect companion application for the millions of Kindle and Kindle DX owners."

Kindle for PC* is available today and comes preinstalled on the following ASUS Eee PC Netbooks with battery life** up to 11 hours:

1005PE-MU27- BK

1005PE-MU27-BU

1005PE-MU27-WT

1005PE-MU27-PI

And on the following ASUS ultra thin and light UL Series notebooks featuring over 11 hours of battery life **:

UL30A-X5K
UL30VT-X1K

These select ASUS netbooks and notebooks are available at Amazon.com with additional models arriving soon.

###

* Kindle for PC, a free application that allows customers to read Kindle content on a PC, is available for download on http://www.amazon.com/KindleforPC .

**Battery life measured with MobileMark 2007 in reader mode and can be different based upon usage and conditions. Please visit http://usa.asus.com for more information. Specifications are subject to change without prior notice.

###



About ASUS

ASUS is a leading company in the new digital era, with a broad product portfolio that includes

notebooks, netbooks, motherboards, graphics cards, displays, desktop PCs, servers, wireless solutions, mobile phones and networking devices. Driven by innovation and committed to quality, ASUS designs and manufactures products that perfectly meet the needs of today's home and office users. ASUS won

3,268 awards in 2009, and is widely credited with revolutionizing the PC industry with the Eee PC™.

With a global staff of more than 10,000 and a world-class R&D design team, the company's revenue for

2009 was US$7.5 billion. ASUS ranks among BusinessWeek's InfoTech 100, and has been on the listing for 12 consecutive years.

[pika2000 Posted May 24th 2010 12:04AM]

Smart on Amazon's part. They're approaching it like Netflix, put the Kindle software on any devices you can so anybody can buy the content you're selling from whatever device(s) they already have.

[Cash9007 Posted May 24th 2010 12:50AM]

@pika2000

Go for it folks... just one more checkbox for me when I run PC Decrapifier after the first boot. But if it makes you feel better, then by all means.

[Cash9007 Posted May 24th 2010 3:24AM]

@Eli Haj

Decrapifier is most certainly *not* crap. Removing every single last trace of bloatware, all in one step Vs. one program at a time, leaving god knows what behind? Yeah, tough choice there.

[tybert7 Posted May 24th 2010 3:05PM]

@pika2000 This is hopeful news. If they allow such software to be run on other tablets (a big IF), it really opens up the ability for competing tablets to get access to a large base of content and books in amazons catalog.

The fact is some people are going to prefer a real screen vs an e-ink one, so restricting their options for ebooks to ONLY the device from amazon was sort of a sectioned off dead end. Perhaps profitable, but not as free. Josh Topolsky should approve. Nilay, will be more laser focused on what is in amazons interest. SAY WHAT YOU WOULD PREFER IN AN IDEAL WORLD NILAY !!!!!!!!! NOT JUST WHAT CYNICAL LAWYERS WOULD DEMAND !!!!!

[CaryHiroyuki Tagawa Posted May 24th 2010 12:06AM]

I approve of this. As much as I like reading, I can't stand books... so I don't read them often (ever). It's much, much easier and more efficient to read something on a computer instead. Burn the books!

[trainwrecka Posted May 24th 2010 9:34AM]

@CaryHiroyuki Tagawa

+1 for your avatar... I'm sorry, but that is friggin' awesome.

FINISH HIM!!

[cheami90 Posted May 24th 2010 12:07AM]

what do you think about that lost finale?

[dannyry Posted May 24th 2010 12:13AM]

@cheami90 lol

[Standish Posted May 24th 2010 3:04AM]

@cheami90 I'm gonna direct you to Gizmodo #whitenoise: http://gizmodo.com/tag/whitenoise and io9 article: http://io9.com/5545911/lost-was-the-ultimate-long-con

[Apple Fan Posted May 24th 2010 12:09AM]

I love how computer companies try to make it sound like they are preloading all kinds of software and software trials solely for the benefit of the customer.

[Whore of Spamylon Posted May 24th 2010 12:16AM]

@Apple Fan

Yeah, I had better get one of these Asus lappies now that I can read Kindle books on them. /sarcasm

[Son Goku Posted May 24th 2010 12:36AM]

@Apple Fan Kindle for PC is as useful as iTunes.

[LiQuiDFuSioN Posted May 24th 2010 2:19AM]

@Son Goku iTunes useless? lol. Say that again to all the iPhone users out there who use it for syncing. -_-

[quillaja Posted May 24th 2010 12:11AM]

Crapware.

[dannyry Posted May 24th 2010 12:13AM]

how about preinstalling linux back in your netbooks asus

[rosebowl23 Posted May 24th 2010 12:19AM]

Cool, more bloatware to uninstall when I buy a laptop.

[TomSawyer Posted May 24th 2010 8:06AM]

@rosebowl23
thank god apple makes enough money on their hardware sales not to need to bend over for all the purveyors of crapware

[bravokiloromeo Posted May 24th 2010 12:21AM]

This really only affects anyone who doesn't know what kindle is. Everyone who does knows it is available on almost every device they own for free.

[insky Posted May 24th 2010 12:25AM]

*sigh*
Asus you used to be so great at not installing a bunch of crap on new computers.

[Son Goku Posted May 24th 2010 12:34AM]

Oh please. Bloatware is that trial copy of MS Office that I'm never going to buy. Kindle for PC is the full version and it's free.

Even if you don't want it, it's not like spending one minute uninstalling it is going to kill you.

[Peytral Posted May 24th 2010 12:36AM]

This isn't all that great... I love ASUS but their laptop screen quality is one of the worst out there.

[mikeszekely Posted May 24th 2010 9:54AM]

@Peytral Do you mean their netbooks, or in general? I used to have an EEE PC 901, and I'd heartily agree that it's screen was a washed-out wreck good only for light websurfing. But my G60VX has a great screen...

[desmo Posted May 24th 2010 12:45AM]

I prefer Barns & Noble, they give free stuff all the time. I like free!

[n8equalsd Posted May 24th 2010 12:58AM]

@desmo
I prefer Farms & Unworthy, myself.

[markolic Posted May 24th 2010 12:48AM]

Shouldn't it be e-tailer not e-trailer

[mikeszekely Posted May 24th 2010 1:10AM]

Just one more thing to uninstall when I get another laptop. I'm not opposed to having an ebook reader on my computers, mind you... but most of my ebooks are .lit anyway. And does Kindle even support epub?

[slipdisc Posted May 24th 2010 1:41AM]

I totally understand preloading an application that would otherwise be a very complicated 60 second install to the normal user. Makes perfect sense to me.

[stridermt2k Posted May 24th 2010 5:29AM]

bada...BOOM

bada big boom!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8WLYzA0lCs

[MVMNT Posted May 24th 2010 8:05AM]

Tell you what, bundle that in with a 30-day trial of Norton and i'll be made up!