Amazon

People may not camp out on the street to get a copy of Windows 7, but the latest version of Microsoft's flagship operating system is ringing up pre-orders.

Amazon.com is offering discounts of 50 percent or more on pre-orders of Windows 7, with limits of three copies per customer on the Home Premium and Professional upgrades. Currently, Windows 7 is the best-selling software on Amazon and is also leading the charge in the entire electronics category.

ASUSTeK Computer is joining other manufacturers in offering a free upgrade to Windows 7 on a number of its PCs as more details about the rollout to the Vista successor emerge.

Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo have already said they will participate in the upgrade program, where customers who purchase Vista machines can, until the release of Windows 7 in late October, receive a free or low-cost upgrade.

Giant online retailer Amazon.com may be plotting a broader foray into software for smartphones.

The company already offers a handful of mobile applications. One lets users of Apple's iPhone read electronic books on their screens. Another lets BlackBerry users snap photos of products in stores, then find similar items on Amazon. Those may be just the start of Amazon's mobile efforts.

It's the day after Microsoft announced Windows 7 pricing, and the reaction is mixed. A special two-week promotion, with a limited number of advance orders for a low-priced upgrade, is doing well.

On Thursday, the software giant said it would offer through several retailers an upgrade from Windows Vista or XP to Windows 7 Home Premium at $49.99 or to Windows 7 Professional for $99.99. The discounted OS is already a best-seller in Amazon's software category.

Two serial entrepreneurs are poised to launch an online marketplace for brand-name household items that boldly aims to compete not only with the likes of Amazon and drugstore.com, but mega-retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, and CVS Caremark as well. It's also up against something else that might be just as powerful: memories of past online consumer-goods debacles.

Online retailer Amazon opened its Kindle Store on Monday, optimized for the iPhone and available through Apple's App Store. When Kindle for iPhone users click on the option to "get books," the Kindle Store opens in Apple's Safari browser.

A new page on the app allows users to find titles by author, name and category and has been designed for the size and shape of iPhone and iPod touch screens.

Despite the excitement for Amazon's new 9.7-inch Kindle DX, there's still some uncertainty about which segment of the book-reading market is most likely to drop nearly $500 on the electronic reader. A number of different possibilities have been suggested, including the elderly (large print is easier to do on the Kindle), newspaper readers (unlikely), and, perhaps most promisingly, college students.

In the initial hyperventilated media coverage of the new Kindle DX, a common theme was that the large-screen e-reader would rescue newspapers from decline. But for a variety of reasons, it's doubtful the latest version of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' electronic reader will do much to shore up the fortunes of the Fourth Estate. Ironically, it's a combination of too little, too late, and too much, too soon.

Where Were You Five Years Ago?

In the future history of e-readers, Wednesday could be a red-letter day as Amazon introduced the Kindle DX, an e-reader with a larger screen than the company's two previous models. The Kindle DX is optimized for textbooks and newspapers.

The device sports a 9.7-inch screen, a PDF reader, 3G wireless connectivity, and a 3.3-gigabyte memory for as many as 3,500 e-books. "Cookbooks, computer books, and textbooks -- anything highly formatted -- also shine on the Kindle DX," said Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos.

Newspaper, Textbook Trials

Amazon.com is setting the stage to take e-book readers to the next level. Lexcycle on Monday announced that it will be acquired by the e-commerce giant.

Lexcycle is a year-old company that makes the iPhone e-book application Stanza. It's a free application that works with the iPhone and the iPod touch and can be used to download a selection of more than 100,000 books and magazines. Lexcycle positions it as a wireless electronic library that stays open 24/7.