Amazon is set to bring ebook lending to its Kindle platform, scheduled to be made available "later this year." The announcement was outlined in a blog post on its community site, together with the welcome news that Kindle magazine and newspaper subscription will also be made available on the various Kindle applications soon.

Where lending is concerned, each book can be lent for 14 days, with the lender unable to read the book during the loan period--similar to a physical book. Not all books will be lendable though, as the final decision will be made by publishers or rights holder.

Promising further details when the feature is released later this year, the Amazon Kindle Team noted: "Our vision is Buy Once, Read Everywhere, and we're excited to make this possible for Kindle periodicals in the same way that it works now for Kindle books." Of course, the increasing pressure from competing devices is probably what spurred Amazon into hastening its move here.

Ultimately, this is an interesting example of how the battle over ebooks is moving away from a purely hardware centric decision to one increasingly revolving around content platforms. For now, the Amazon Kindle appears to have the edge due to its footprint in hardware ranging from the iPad and iPhone to BlackBerry and Android devices.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at Amazon Blog

Related Articles:
Best Buy will soon sell Kindles
Amazon announces third-gen Kindle, adds Wi-Fi to lineup
Leatherbound offers eBook price comparison services
eBooks should be cheaper than paper ones