Earlier this week Oyster Books announced on its blog that it is shutting down the two-year-old ebook subscription service. Of course, as you’d expect from a company that promotes reading and literature, they sugarcoated the announcement, saying they “will be taking steps to sunset the existing Oyster service over the next several months.”The so-called sunset of Oyster Books closely follows the shutdown of Entitle, another ebook subscription service that launched in 2013. According to the announcement, the Oyster team believes that the future of ebooks is in the smartphone business.

“As we continue on, we couldn’t be more excited about the future of ebooks and mobile reading. We believe more than ever that the phone will be the primary reading device globally over the next decade-enabling access to knowledge and stories for billions of people worldwide. Looking forward, we feel this is best seized by taking on new opportunities to fully realize our vision for ebooks.”

What they didn’t say is that part of the Oyster team is heading over to Google to work for Google Play Books, says Re/code. A source told Re/code that among the Oyster staff moving to Google are CEO Eric Stromberg and co-founders Andrew Brown and Willem Van Lancker. It is not clear if Google bought Oyster Brooks or if/how Oyster investors will be compensated for the $17 million in start-up capital.Mashable speculates that the expanded team at Google Play Books will help Google compete against Apple and Amazon by leveraging its resources, technology and access to a broader audience.Insider Take:Of the three big subscription ebook services, Scribd is the only one still standing. Does that mean that ebooks aren’t viable as a subscription service, or does it just mean that Entitle and Oyster didn’t have what it takes to compete against corporate behemoths like Google, Apple and Amazon?Perhaps a more critical question is “Is this the end for ebooks?” We don’t think so. Ebooks are both viable and in demand, especially as smartphone usage grows. People want their news and entertainment to be portable, and that includes ebooks but maybe standalone subscription services aren’t the answer.We don’t think ebooks will go away, but whether the provider is Google, Apple or Amazon, the underlying technology must support the end product, and the business model has to be sustainable. We think Google recognizes the potential, and is willing to acquire players like Oyster to give it the tools it needs to corner its share of the market. We are eager to hear Google’s plans for the Oyster team.~ Dana E. Neuts, Subscription Insider