According to a Wall Street Journal article (behind a pay wall), Amazon is in talks with publishers to release a Netflix style subscription program for books. This would be in addition to Amazon’s video streaming service (about 5000 of those movies are free for Prime Members). TheNextWeb has a free report about the rumor.
If the subscription actually has some real partners from the publishing world (and Netflix is currently hurting because its movie partners are pulling out) Amazon may again change the ebook world. Amazon has had a video streaming service for a while. It is no where close to Netflix, but I have used it. About 5000 of Amazon’s streaming movies are free to Prime customers.
If current rumors hold, then Amazon may be giving away a Prime membership with its new tablets and so the tablets can stream movies. Then if the book lending subscriptions pan out, the rumored Amazon tablet may actually have some content features that move people away from their eink kindles and the LCD iPads.
(ht: ireaderreview)