Google Launches e-Reader to Compete with Kindle—Are They Too Late?

“Galleycat,” the publishing blog at MediaBistro has the story of Google’s partnership with iriver:

The iriver Story HD will be the first eReader integrated with the Google eBooks platform. The Wi-Fi enabled device has a 6″ eInk screen and a QWERTY keyboard. It goes on sale this coming Sunday at Target for $139.99, the same price as the Kindle.Do you think the eReader will be competitive? It is good news for independent bookstores who can sell eBooks using the Google eBookstore platform. In this video, Scott Dougall, director, product management, Google Books, talks about how these retail partnerships with Google eBooks work.

The challenge: I’ve already got a Kindle. Why should I bother to switch to another platform where I presumably won’t have access to all the Kindle books The Wife and I have already acquired? Competitors in the e-reader market are really going to have to come up with compelling ways that their service is superior to Amazon’s.