Yahoo launches e-book service

Yahoo has signed agreements with four major book publishers to launch a one-stop e-book service.

Penguin Putnam, Simon & Schuster, Random House and HarperCollins will offer a collection of book categories, including recent best sellers, mysteries, thrillers, science fiction, travel and college textbooks, on Yahoo's new e-book site.

The move will put Yahoo in direct competition with barnesandnoble.com, which pays to be the main bookseller on Yahoo's website.

"As technology enables consumers to access digital content more conveniently, we anticipate that there will be increasing demand for e-books," said Rob Solomon, vice president and general manager of Yahoo Shopping.

He added that aggregating a broad collection of the most sought after titles in multiple e-book formats positions Yahoo to meet these needs and to satisfy growing consumer demand in the future.

Yahoo will receive undisclosed commissions for each sale on its site and additional fees for promoting books and authors. The e-books can be downloaded using either Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader or Microsoft Reader. Both software programs are free of charge.

Jack Romanos, president and chief operating officer at Simon & Schuster, said: "With the launch of the Yahoo e-book site, electronic publishing takes another important step toward the mainstream."

But Meta Group analyst David Cearley maintained that immature, expensive technology and a limited number of people willing to consider reading books on electronic devices rather than on paper, hamper the e-book market.

"We expect a shift during the next two to three years, with products achieving a somewhat wide appeal," he said. "In three to five years, we anticipate the marketplace will be invigorated by better, lower-cost technologies, more research into form factors and the advent of faster wireless technology to support on-demand access to e-books. Until then, e-books will remain a niche market."