New Rumors of an Inpending Kindle Launch in the UK no comments
There have been several rumor cycles concerning an impending Kindle launch in the UK. This time it could even possibly maybe come true.
On September 30th the Bookseller quoted an “authoritative source” as saying “The key things they needed to tie up have been tied up. The rumours I’ve heard are all saying next week.” Presumably one of these key things would be the wireless connection, which is GSM/GPRS in Europe vs. CDMA which the Kindle Whispernet uses in the US.
One recent poll indicates that there is a fair amount of pent-up demand for ereaders in the UK. The same poll indicates that one major roadblock in the growth of the ereader market in the UK is a less than stellar selection of ebook titles. If the Kindle store launches with anything approaching the number of titles it has in the US version it will be very well positioned to take advantage of this demand and could make for a great holiday season for Amazon’s ereaders.
Another recent poll by the shopping site Retrevo is pointing to a good holiday season for ereaders, especially for Amazon. The poll, conducted in the United States and with a sample size of 771 people, found 21% of respondents planning to purchase an ereader this year. Of these, 62% planned to buy Amazon’s Kindle, 32% favored a Sony ereader and the remaining 6% were planning on buying another brand.
Hopefully once the Kindle is launched in the UK other European countries will follow shortly. However the wireless landscape in Europe is much more complicated than that in the US. In the US it is possible to have an agreement with just one carrier, but in Europe there are many different cellular operators that Amazon would have to have agreements with.
