Archive for the ‘kindle outside US’ tag
German Kindle Store Coming? no comments
There are apparently quite a few rumors that Amazon is currently in negotiations with German publishers to open a German version of the Kindle Store as part of Amazon.de. Currently German customers can order the Kindle ereaders from Amazon.com, but if the rumors are true this may change in 2011. At the moment there are not many Kindle books available in German except for some public domain titles.
Negotiations have been difficult because — big surprise — publishers want to set prices and Amazon wants to be able to set the ebook prices itself.
via eReaders.nl
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Kindle International Country Details no comments
I’ve reformatted the country specific details for the International Kindle
There is also some more news regarding the Kindle International ereader.
The Globe and Mail is reporting that Amazon is currently in negotiations with Canadian telecoms and it sounds as though there is a good chance that the Kindle ereader will be available in Canada in time for the holidays.
There may also be a Kiwi version of the Kindle International pretty soon as well. New Zealand PCWorld is reporting that Amazon is in “deep discussions” with Vodafone to bring the Kindle to New Zealand.
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A Few More Notes on Kindle International 2 comments
Just a few more quick notes on Amazon’s new Kindle International. First of all, if you want to find details of the Kindle International’s release in a particular country there is a drop down country list on the Kindle International
page. While over 100 countries will have Kindles with 3G wireless joy, there are some notable exceptions. Just doing a quick scan I found that Amazon still will not ship Kindles to Canada or Thailand or Israel among other countries. New Zealand is also left out so far, although the Kindle International is available in Australia (but doesn’t come with a power adapter). Some other countries will get Kindles but no wireless connection.
While the US Kindle store now has 350,000 titles, the Kindle stores in some other countries have less than 200,000. This is still much better than Sony’s ebook store.
There is an interesting article about the Kindle International on Wired.com. It includes portions of a telephone interview with Jeff Bezos. Some interesting points:
- The International Kindle will use AT&T instead of Sprint, which the Kindle 2 uses.
- The Lonely Planet series will be added to the Kindle store
- Customers who purchased Kindle 2 within the last 30 days may exchange it for Kindle International
- Mr. Bezos also revealed that of books currently available at Amazon in both paper and Kindle formats, 48% of sales are in Kindle version
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Kindle 2 Price Reduction and Amazon Launches Overseas no comments
The Kindle 2 is now selling for $259 in the US. A new Kindle with global wireless will be released on October 19th. The international model will sell for $279, and will provide 3G coverage in over 100 countries.
A statement on Amazon’s site states “With this new Kindle, you can get your books, newspapers, and magazines delivered wirelessly while at home or abroad in over 100 countries. Whether you’re in Paris, Mumbai, or Sao Paulo, you can think of a book and be reading it in less than 60 seconds.
Actually, it appears that the “2″ has been dropped; now there is a Kindle with US wireless coverage
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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.
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Kindle and Kindle Books Outside of USA no comments
Currently Amazon’s Kindle 2 and Kindle DX are only sold by Amazon in the US. While it is possible to have someone in the US buy a Kindle for you and ship it to your overseas location, or you can buy one on eBay, you then have the problem of not being able to access the Kindle book store unless you have a credit card issued by an American bank with a US billing address. If you are an American, or have a credit card billed in the US, then you can download books while overseas to your PC and then to your Kindle.
If the Kindle 2 or Kindle DX is the ebook reader you are set on, there is a workaround that some are using to purchase books from Amazon, even though they are living in other countries. This involves buying Amazon gift cards and using those to pay for your ebooks. You can find out how to do this here: http://www.nerdgirl.com/2009/03/20/amazon-kindle-outside-the-us/
At some point Amazon will presumably make the Kindle Family available worldwide, but it will need to be rebuilt to have wireless access via the systems in place outside the US. Also Amazon will no doubt have to negotiate with publishers as different publishers usually have the rights to publish a particular book in different geographical areas.
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