Ebook Subscription Services: Oyster Debuts Web Reader (No App Required)

Oyster, the all-you-can read ebook subscription the service that we first called to your attention in 2012 and launched in September 2013, began offering a web-based reader today. In other words, you now don’t need an app (iOS, Android, Nook, or Kindle Fire) to access and read books. Like Scribd and Kindle Unlimited, all books are available at all times to all users.
Oyster currently provides access to approximately 500,000 titles (as of today) including the complete Simon and Schuster backlist for $9.95/month.
From the Oyster Blog:

With Oyster for the web, each chapter is downloaded in its entirety as a single page, allowing you to scroll through a full chapter without interruption.
In designing this experience, we wanted to move away from the way books are traditionally displayed on the web—contained in a PDF-style viewer. Instead, the Oyster for web experience is more like to reading a blog post or web article (think the New York Times). The result is an reading experience that feels fast, fluid, and native to the web. Going forward we’re really excited to push this vision to make book reading on the web even better.
The web reader includes all five of Oyster’s own reading themes, five text sizes, and night mode.
Activity is synced across devices.

From VentureBeat

Following the launch of Kindle Unlimited, Oyster chief Eric Stromberg told VentureBeat he wasn’t surprised by the news. “They have pivoted from transactional to subscription-based in other media and have had limited success,” he jabbed. “They really paved the way in ebooks, and it’s exciting to see them embrace the market we created as the future of books.”

You can browse the complete Oyster collection here.
See Also: Oyster, a Spotify/Netflix-Like Service for E-Books Launches, Is the Library Community Preparing for These Types of Services? (September 5, 2013)

Filed under: Libraries, News, Patrons and Users