Amazon is about to get some serious competition in the eBook market, as Apple recently acquired BookLamp, a move that is a clear sign at going after one of Amazon's most profitable markets.
BookLamp has a technology called the Book Genome Project; it is seen as the "Pandora" of books, and this is probably the most important aspect of Apple's need to bring BookLamp under its wings. The startup has the skills in breaking books down to data points, along with examining various scenes. It allows the company to create a list or recipe of major themes within a book.
"Say you're looking for a novel like the The Da Vinci Code. We have found that it contains 18.6% Religion and Religious Institutions, 9.4% Police & Murder Investigation, 8.2% Art and Art Galleries, and 6.7% Secret Societies & Communities, and other elements - we'll pull out a book with similar elements, provided it is in our database," says BookLamps CEO Aaron Stanton in an interview back in 2011.
This sounds like a natural fit for Apple, as the company is out to beat Amazon at its own game.
We're not certain how much Apple paid to acquire BookLamp. However, according to sources, Apple paid more than $10 million, and less than $15 million.
The same source claimed that within the next 18 months, we should see some interesting eBooks related stuff coming from Apple.
"I can tell you that in the next year to 18 months you will see some fairly major initiatives focused on books and reading coming out of Apple." source says.
It is said that Apple is looking into hiring new talent from eBay to help increase the number of BookLamp employees currently preparing to make the move to Cupertino.
Amazon should keep a close eye on what Apple is doing here, because we have no doubt in our mind that the Cupertino giant will aim to incorporate some of BookLamps technology into iBooks. Whether or not that will be enough to shake up Amazon's iron grip hold on the eBooks market is left to be seen.
