That Amazon is strategically aiming expanding the reach of its digital bookstore to on as many platforms as possible further became evident from the company’s Monday announcement that it will release a new Kindle app for Android smartphones this summer.

The Kindle app for Android, which Amazon is touting a “companion” to the Kindle e-reader, is not the first e-reader-independent digital book application – the company already has the March 2009-released Kindle app for the Apple iPhone; as well as the February 2010-released Kindle app for the RIM BlackBerry.

In addition, Amazon also boasts exclusive software apps for the PC, Mac, and even the last-month-released iPad tablet computer.

The forthcoming Kindle app for Android smartphones will likely be similar to the Kindle apps for other devices. Basically, it will allow users to sync up a particular page if they are reading the same book on another device, both in portrait and landscape mode. Moreover, the option of buying books will also exist within a Web browser, rather than an in-app directory.

Evidently, the objective behind Amazon’s release of apps for different platforms is that even if users hesitate to invest in the Kindle hardware per se, they still will end up buying digital books from Amazon.

Incidentally, Amazon’s Kindle apps for third-party devices are universally less full-featured as compared to the Kindle itself – the difference apparently being by design!