A major Canadian bookseller is readying the launch of its "Kindle killer" Thursday. Indigo Books & Music says its Shortcovers electronic book program will offer 50,000 full books at launch, as well as 200,000 first chapters of books for free. Shortcovers is designed for use with iPhone, BlackBerry, Android phones, and other mobile devices.

So how does Shortcovers stack up against Amazon's Kindle 2, which began arriving on people's doorsteps this week? Shortcovers doesn't yet match Kindle's e-book selection, which currently numbers more than 240,000 books along with newspapers, magazines, and blogs. Like Amazon, Shortcovers will offer readers first chapters of books for free, but with an interesting twist: For some books, people can buy subsequent individual chapters for 99 cents each.

Full-length e-books on Shortcovers will range in price from $4.99 to $19.99. Amazon's Kindle store charges $9.99 for New York Times bestsellers and most new releases, though it charges less than that for other books. If people who use Shortcovers want to buy a hard copy version of a book, they'll be directed to either Indigo's website (which works in Canadian currency only) or Indigo's U.S. partner, Barnes & Noble.

Shortcovers promises it will build its e-book selection in the coming weeks, adding content from big publishers Random House, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins. Michael Serbinis, executive vice president of Shortcovers and chief information officer of Indigo, declined to give a target number of e-books but said "we hope to go beyond" Kindle's current 240,000 selection. He said Shortcovers also has plans to add newspaper and magazine content.

Shortcovers will offer free iPhone and BlackBerry applications starting Thursday, with a Google Android app to follow. Serbinis confirmed plans to develop Shortcovers for other smartphones using Symbian and Windows, and for the Palm Pre. Serbinis said users of Shortcovers will be able to rate, tag, comment on, share, and Twitter about what they're reading.

Shortcovers joins a growing number of e-book applications for the popular iPhone, including Stanza from Lexcycle and eReader from Fictionwise. Reading on a small mobile screen isn't for everyone, and Amazon executives have repeatedly pointed out that the $359 Kindle is a "purpose built" device for reading electronically, with a larger screen and other features designed for the serious reader.

Amazon spokesman Drew Herdener said Amazon doesn't comment on other companies.

Indigo Books & Music has both a retail presence with 250 stores in Canada as well as an ecommerce site, indigo.ca. It will be interesting to see another established bookseller take on Amazon for a piece of the growing e-book market.