Google's Play Books store seems a tad too expensive

Google Books store is now available to users from India. The app which can be downloaded from Google Play store for Android and iOS users, will store eBook versions of titles that you purchase from the Google Play store. Since the storage is all cloud based, you can also download the book from your desktop and it will appear instantly in your iPad or iPhone or Android app.

Now while all of this is great, the thing that really matters when it comes to eBooks is the pricing and Google Play Books store seems really expensive.

For instance, the Hobbit is Rs 651.36 on Google Play store and the complete LOTR trilogy costs Rs 1385. Now compare this to Amazon’s Kindle eStore, which has the books available for Rs 458.30 (the complete trilogy that is) while the Hobbit costs only Rs 167.60. That is a huge price gap.

The Silmarillion for instance is available on Kindle Store for Rs 385.48, while the Google Play Books store has it for Rs 651.36.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo costs Rs 279 on the Google Play Books Store, which pretty close to the Amazon Kindle price of Rs 273 .

Interestingly when you search for Chetan Bhagat the first book search result is Five Point Someone which costs Rs 250, but the cover is for some international Red Cross book in Hindi . The cataloging seems shoddy and Google must fix that.

Amish Tripathi’s latest in the Shiva saga, The Oath of the Vayuputras costs around Rs 189 on Google Play Books store , while on Kindle eStore it costs Rs 175.

We also tried for books that are often hard to find in a regular book store. Ray Bradbury’s classic Farenheit 451 is available for Rs 546.86 on Google Play Store , while the Kindle edition costs Rs 536.89.

At first glance, Google Play Books seems a little expensive compared to the Amazon Kindle eBook store.