Though Google has not yet launched a marketplace for e-books, it already maintains a catalogue of public-domain books with more than 500,000 titles.

Last year, the company settled a long-running legal battle with publishers over the digitisation project.

In March, Google inked a deal with Sony to offer the collection on the Sony Reader device.

Meanwhile, Amazon has officially set a release date for the newest version of its Kindle reader device. The company said that it would begin shipping the US$489 Kindle DX tablet to pre-order customers in the United States on June 10.

The Kindle DX was first announced in March. The 9.7 inch tablet is being aimed at readers of larger-format publications, such as magazines, newspapers, and PDF text files.

The company has yet to announce a local release date for the Kindle DX.

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