According to a recent Amazon press release, the benefits of the company’s popular e-reader, Kindle, are coming the way of the Android users – with the free Kindle app for Android to become available this week.

The new Kindle app for Android is fairly identical to the Kindle app on other mobile operating systems - like the one for the iPhone and the BlackBerry - including support for both portrait and landscape orientations.

The somewhat plain and slim-featured Kindle app for Android functions essentially like an e-book reader – once the app has been downloaded, it allows the users of Android-based devices to shop for e-books from Amazon’s online Kindle Store, and also to download the already-purchased books.

In its news release, Amazon suggested that the users for the Kindle app for Android should preferably search for or browse books directly from the app - a feature which, along with full text search, will be a part of the future versions.

With Kindle largely being all about e-book sales, apps from the Amazon online Kindle Store typically costs nearly $10 each; with the apps boasting a convenient wireless sync up with the selected e-books.

For the convenience of the users, Amazon label each of its e-book listings with an explanatory box that states “Incorporates video and audio. Furthermore, each of these listings also specifies the precise media feature of an e-book.