Currently only advertised on the US website although its international spread is inevitable, Amazon’s Matchbook scheme will offer customers of physical books the chance to receive a digital copy for free or a discounted price. An innovative idea, Matchbook has the potential to put an end to the recent raging debate of e-books versus traditional print in the same way that the company now allows you to immediately download the MP3 version of a physical album that you buy.
So why is the scheme so great? For starters, those who revere physical books but can’t deny the practicalities of e-readers will be happy; they can have the best of both worlds. You can still hold and read a real book in all its traditional glory, but you can keep those to read at home and then take your Kindle out and about. Kindles hold a ridiculous amount of books, so can easily match all the books on your bookshelves.