WNA

Amazon announced today that developers of HTML5 mobile apps can now charge money for the apps distributed through the company’s Android AppStore.

HTML5 web apps using open web technologies such as HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS, can more easily run on different platforms such as Android, IOS and WindowsPhone.

In light of rumors pointing to an Amazon smartphone, this change could help entice devs to create apps that also work on the Seattle-based company’s handset, rather than focus their efforts on another mobile platform, notes Seattle-based GeekWire.

More Americans are now reading ebooks, according to a new Pew study. But in 2013, ebook revenue growth hit an inflection point and tapered off. Somewhere between a fifth and a third of book publishing revenue in the U.S. comes from the sale of ebooks – a number that was quickly getting bigger every year, until this year, when it stagnated. Perhaps HTML5-based Epub-3 will give it a shot in the arm.