In a somewhat surprising move, Amazon announced today that it would be offering a Kindle app on the iPad. Kindle is Amazon’s e-book reader, and has been the hardware of choice for those wanting to read books, magazines and newspapers on the go. That could change with Apple’s upcoming release of the iPad. Although the iPad isn’t elusively an e-book reader, it does offer that functionality and appears poised to be the stiff competition for the Kindle.

While Amazon’s decision to offer software for it’s rival may not be shocking to everyone (they do after all, offer a Kindle App on the iPhone), the announcement does raise a few eyebrows and some questions. Is Amazon’s support of the iPad the first sign of the death of the Kindle? Or is this simply in line with what Amazon has done with all mobile devices – offer Kindle functionality on multiple devices. For those that believe that the Kindle has a long life ahead, they would take the latter stance and suggest that Kindle on the iPad represents growth. Those believing that this could be the end of days for the Kindle would argue that rivals typically don’t play nice – at least not until they have to. Think Apple and Microsoft, iPhone and Android, Amazon and iTunes…

As for the app itself, Kindle on the iPad will feature Whispersync. Whispersync allows you to read on multiple devices and always pick up where you left off. It will also sync bookmarks across devices and allow you to buy Kindle formatted books on iPad’s Safari web browser. The app will also allow you to change the font color and size, the background color and even page animations.

It will be interesting to see how Kindle will fare on the iPad, since it will have competition from Apple’s own e-book store.

Details on the price and release date are not clear. It is safe to assume, however, that it should be available around the April 3 launch date of the iPad and will most likely be free like it’s iPhone counterpart.

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