Verizon, Amazon Highlight Kindle for Android on Fascinate, Droid

Verizon Wireless is now featuring Kindle for Android directly on the application screens of the Samsung Fascinate and Motorola Droid X and Droid 2 smartphones.

Verizon Wireless Oct. 13 teamed with Amazon.com to preload the Kindle for Android application on the application screens of the Samsung Fascinate and Motorola Droid X and Droid 2 smartphones.

Kindle for Android lets readers search, download and read from more than 700,000 books in the Kindle Store from their Android phone.

Features of the app include the ability to search within an e-book via typing or voice; add notes and highlights to text, and have those notations sync between devices; and look up terms in Wikipedia.

Kindle for Android also supports Amazon's Whispersync, which syncs bookmarks across devices, so users can find what page they were on when they stopped reading the book, and book archiving.

"Customers are already telling us they love Kindle for Android, and we think they are going to be excited to get their Verizon Wireless phones and other devices preloaded with the Kindle app," said Dave Limp, vice president for Kindle at Amazon, in a statement.

Limp added that the app will be preloaded on other devices down the road. However, the Droid X, Droid 2 and Fascinate, which are popular and have sold millions of units combined, are a good place to start.

Kindle for Android has been available for free in the Android Market since June.

Android handset users have been able to find the app by searching for "Kindle" in Android Market, but searching apps in Google's app store is usually quite a challenge compared to apps in Apple's App Store.

By dropping an icon for the app right on the applications screen of the popular Droid X, Droid 2 and new Fascinate, Verizon and Amazon are clearly trying to make the app more prominent on Android handsets.

This isn't the first time Verizon has taken measures to improve the application experience for Android devices, which in addition to suffering from a poor app user experience are shackled by the Market's subpar payment platform.

The No. 1 wireless carrier last month launched V Cast Apps, its application store for Android, to make it easier for consumers to find and purchase apps.

Moreover, Amazon is expected to launch an Android application store sometime this year.