Amazon has made a huge gain in conquering the eBook world in the last few months by bringing their Kindle interface to the iPhone and purchasing Lexcycle, the parent company of Stanza. While the Amazon Kindle may be the most popular eBook reader in the world, Stanza is the second-most popular, so the acquisition really gives Amazon a huge advantage over the competition.
But Amazon can learn a lot from the Stanza app. For instance, how to build a decent iPhone store. The recent update to the iPhone Kindle includes a Kindle store (run via Safari), but any comparison between it and the Stanza store is laughable. The Kindle store runs in a web page, and while it is not horrible, there just isn't any comparison to Stanza's integrated bookstores. Stanza includes store fronts for Fictionwise, Smashwords and other eBook shops. The interface is much smoother, makes browsing books much faster, and provides easier access to browsing different types of books. The Fictionwise store even links over to Goodreads for book reviews and Amazon for purchasing a printed copy.
Now that Amazon owns Stanza, perhaps they'll integrate the Kindle platform into it and kill the iPhone Kindle app. After all, it doesn't make much sense to continue development on two different eBook readers, and Stanza has a better store interface and is a more sophisticated eBook reader.
Unfortunately, the acquisition also puts Amazon in a position to drive out competing platforms. It's entirely possible that the move is meant to give them a way to drive out Fictionwise, recently purchased by Barnes and Noble, and kill off the other competing stores on Stanza like BooksOnBoard, Smashwords, Feedbooks and O'Reilly eBooks.
However, that type of move could backfire for Amazon. After all, it would open up a hole that could be filled with a new smartphone reader that supports non-Kindle eBooks and includes those various storefronts. And no doubt publishers, who have no love of Amazon, would jump on board in support of any new eBook reader. So it might be better for Amazon to play it safe and keep Stanza an open platform.
Amazon (and everybody else) can’t sell directly from the iPhone app because Apple wants 30 percent of the sale. Most of the content that has been downloaded through Stanza thus far is public domain. For the few paid content options via Stanza, I believe they had to kick people out to a Web store also.