Amazon recently announced its intention to introduce tablet-specific apps for reading Kindle eBooks on devices running the Android and Windows operating systems, owned by Google and Microsoft respectively. In what looks to be the Year of the Tablet, this will expand the Kindle's compatibility list substantially. The best part? Amazon will be offering the apps free of charge.

In its release, Amazon specifically noted that these apps are intended for upcoming tablet lines. This seems to foreshadow future technological developments in the tablet market, and soon at that. Coined as "Buy Once, Read Everywhere" apps, these new releases will give readers the ability to choose from over 775,000 Kindle eBooks. As the app name suggests, Kindle users will be able to sync their newly purchased books across a variety of popular eBook reading devices, on a number of different platforms.

Currently there are Kindle apps available for the iPhone, Windows PC, Mac, Blackberry, iPad, Android, and Windows Phone 7. With the seeming inevitability of several new tablet releases, syncing across multiple eBook reader devices and platforms promises to be easier than ever in 2011.