How do I buy Kindle books on my iPhone now? (reader mail)

By Ben Patterson | July 27, 2011 at 10:17 am
categorized as: Applications • How-tos • Phones

Laura writes: So I just read the news about how you can’t buy books in the Kindle app for iPhone anymore. Here’s my question: I travel a lot and prefer not to have to buy new Kindle books on the web. Is there another way to get Kindle books directly on my iPhone, or am I out of luck?

Hi Laura! Yep, you’re right: The handy link to the online Kindle Store in Amazon’s Kindle app for the iPhone is now gone, thanks to Apple’s tough new App Store rules. (I won’t bore you with the details, but you can read all about it right here if you’re interested.)

But the truth is that you can still buy Kindle books directly on the iPhone—and in fact, the process is almost exactly the same as it was before.

Here’s what you do:

Kindle Store for iPhone2 300x225 How do I buy Kindle books on my iPhone now? (reader mail)

Make sure your iPhone is selected in the pull-down menu before hitting the "Buy now" button.

Open the Safari web browser on your iPhone and type amazon.com into the address field; you should arrive at the iPhone-optimized version of Amazon’s online store. Did you land on the standard Amazon site instead? If so, try typing iphone.amazon.com into Safari’s address field instead—that should do the trick.
Scroll down until you see the section marked “Shop All Departments,” then tap “Kindle Books,” followed by “Kindle Store.”
At this point, you’ll have arrived at the same page where the old “Kindle Store” button on the iPhone Kindle app would have taken you. From here, you can search the entire store, or browse books, newspapers, magazines, or Kindle “Singles” (short stories, essays, and other short works, which typically cost $3 or less).
Once you find a Kindle book you like, tap its link, then make sure your iPhone is selected in the pull-down menu marked “Send wirelessly to.”
Tap “Buy now” or “Try a sample,” then go back to the iPhone Kindle app; your new book should start downloading automatically. No problem!

Have more questions about Kindle for the iPhone—or Apple’s new App Store policies, for that matter? Let me know!