Amazon has launched a retail outlet specifically designed for iPad owners that lets them purchase and read books on the device without Amazon having to pay Apple its usual 30% revenue cut.

The iPad-optimised Amazon Kindle Store, which launched in the US earlier this week and is specifically designed for touchscreen devices, lets users select and download books via the device’s browser.  

The books can then be read via the device’s web browser Safari or via Amazon’s Kindle Cloud Reader app which also lets users access content while offline.   

IPad owners using the Amazon Kindle Store are also encouraged to add the icon to their homescreen when first accessing the outlet.

Purchasing the items via Amazon Kindle Store means Apple cannot lay claim to 30% of the revenue generated by the iPad owners that it insists upon for subscriptions generated via native iOS apps.

The launch of the Amazon Kindle Store for iPad comes after a host of retailers removed the e-book purchase options from their native iOS apps after Apple updated its in-app subscription guidelines.

Apple’s update hindered retailers from selling directly via their own channels in a bid to drive in-app subscriptions where it claims 30% of all revenue generated.

In a similar conflict of interests the FT pulled its native iOS apps from the App Store in favour of a HTML5-based web app which also let the publisher evade Apple’s insistence on claiming 30% of revenues generated by native iOS apps.

The launch comes the same week as Amazon-owned Lovefilm launched in the UK (nma.co.uk 9 January 2012).