Two men enter, one man leaves: Google promises e-book service by end of 2009

Today, Google announced plans to launch an e-book service by the end of the year, in direct competition with Amazon’s Kindle.

Speculation over the service is hinging on two key differences. While Kindle titles hover around $9.99 for most titles, Google indicated a more open-ended pricing policy, allowing publishers to charge a higher rate and creating some rumbles about driving up the general price of e-books.

The other very large difference is that Google wants to eliminate the necessity for an expensive, one-function piece of equipment, allowing consumers to access their purchases on any web-enabled device. Netbooks, smartphones, home computers and digital readers will be able to access content, and consumers will be able to- get this- move the books they’ve legally purchased from device to device just because they feel like it! (Kindle purchases are only viewable on the pricey Kindle device, iPhones and the iPod Touch.)

Amazon currently offers around 280,000 titles in the Kindle Store. Google has already digitized about seven million books.