In a Wednesday announcement, bookstore chain Borders said that it had opened Borders eBooks – its own online marketplace, which will enable customers to but books directly from Borders. com and download them to the e-reader they possess.

The recently-announced move by Borders indicates the company intends its Borders eBooks marketplace to compete market dominance by marking availability of ebooks for several platforms – Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch; Kobo and Sony e-readers; PC; Mac; and also, in the near future, on Blackberry and Android devices.

As per the information forwarded by Borders, the newly-opened Borders eBook store features more than 1.5 million titles for download, including hordes of books ‘for free’. The downloaded ebooks, which are available in different formats like ePub and PDF, can be read in any of the Borders eReader apps.

The Borders eBook Store will include a wide array of digital books, ranging from free classics to the latest best sellers. While most of the ebooks will be priced at around $9.99, the cost of some bestsellers and new titles may be at par with the list price of their paper counterparts.

For the new venture, Borders has entered into a strategic partnership with the worldwide e-reading service Kobo, which will operate the Borders eBooks online store. Kobo is also the maker of the ‘no-frills’ Kobo e-reader, which is priced at $150. Incidentally, the Borders Group is one of the financial backers of Kobo.