Amazon announced an alternative to the app-centric services offered by iOS and Android last week. Amazon now offers a cloud-based version of the Kindle Reader that allows access to books, the last page read, bookmarks, notes and any highlighting in the browser using an HTML5 version of the application.

As I pointed out in this week's story on Box.net, the beauty of this approach is that it bypasses apps altogether and lets users access the application in any browser that supports HTML5. It remains to be seen, however, if users want to use the browser as the primary means of accessing content and applications on mobile devices or if they prefer to use Apps (at least in some cases) because they provide a more convenient approach to mobile computing. Regardless, this gives users a choice.

Amazon has also responded to one of the chief problems of using the browser and that's accessing content offline. 

Dorothy Nicholls, director for Amazon Kindle, is justifiably excited by the flexibility of this option. "We have written the application from the ground up in HTML5, so that customers can also access their content offline directly from their browser. The flexibility of HTML5 allows us to build one application that automatically adapts to the platform you're using--from Chrome to iOS," she said in a statement.

This approach, much like Box's, allows Amazon to cover all the mobile bases with the Kindle app and give users access to their library, regardless of whether there is a supported app or not.

For more information:
- see the Amazon.com press release

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