

Amazon Kindle now available outside US, plus price drop - goodside
http://www.amazon.com/kindle-store-ebooks-newspapers-blogs/b/ref=topnav_storetab_kinh?ie=UTF8&node=133141011

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patio11
That's wonderful news.

It is also on the front page of amazon.co.jp right now, where I hoped to order
it from (I get free shipping from them). They have a wonderful letter from
Jeff Bezos (translated into Japanese -- some nice touches by the translator,
incidentally) and if you click anywhere in it you get directed to the page on
amazon.com to buy.

That is, needless to say, written totally in English. And which won't support
the payment methods used by most of the customers of amazon.co.jp. (Credit
card penetration is pretty low here -- most people I know use bank transfer or
payment at the convenience store.)

I mention this just to point out that Internationalization Is Hard, even for
big billion dollar companies. I'll be ordering mine by the end of the day.

~~~
nandemo
> Credit card penetration is pretty low here

Really? I think the average internet user in Japan does have a credit card.
It's just that people don't use it as often as Americans do.

Of course the English interface will filter out most of them.

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chaosmachine
Sadly, Canada isn't included.. again. List of countries/coverage/etc here:

[http://blogkindle.com/2009/10/international-release-of-
kindl...](http://blogkindle.com/2009/10/international-release-of-kindle-2/)

~~~
s3graham
Guatemala, Iceland, Kenya, Mongolia: Check.

Canada: ack pfft.

~~~
jacquesm
Canada: nak

But they say they'll have it soon. I wonder what the hold up is there.

~~~
felixc
I'm going to guess it's our awful wireless operators, who charge higher data
rates than any other place I know of in the world (a few years ago it was 3 to
10 times as much as the second most expensive location).

~~~
symesc
Could this also be about distribution rights/licences?

~~~
jacquesm
Or having to have x% Canadian authors of which y% has to be in French ?

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rbanffy
I don't know... I am still bothered by the idea that Amazon can remotely
delete content that is already in my Kindle. I am not completely comfortable
with a device that can be remotely controlled by somebody whose interests may
not always coincide with mine. What if decides to erase my (legally acquired)
PDF magazine collection? I have backups, but, still, it's a major nuisance.

I am also not too happy with the idea of the wireless data connection contract
being between my local telco and Amazon. I would be perfectly happy to pay my
connection fees in proportion with my consumption.

I also want the DX, not the II.

On the other hand, I am happy they finally made HDSPA/EDGE/GPRS available. It
seemed to me a completely stupid move to use a mostly US-only technology.

That also should prompt a move from Sony. I think I will wait for now.
Interesting developments will come.

~~~
yan
I have the DX and have been very happy with it, so far.

Amazon has no control over content you add on to it yourself; they never know
about your own PDFs. This is the major reason why I bought the device and what
I mostly use it for. I seldom buy Kindle books, and I get those on the Kindle
that I just want to read and don't particularly care what happens in the long
run.

On the remote erasing feature, I really, sincerely doubt they would ever try
that shit again. The amount of bad publicity this earned them, it'd be
ridiculous for them to even imply doing it. Bezos personally apologized for it
and if they do it again, it would cost him his credibility.

~~~
gcheong
They've definitely changed their policy. This is an e-mail I received from
Amazon a while back:

Hello,

We are writing to inform you that we need to refund your purchase of the book
'The Little Prince or Le Petit Prince ILLUSTRATED (mobi).'. This book was
added to our catalog by a third-party who we now believe did not have the
rights to make the book available for sale. We will be removing the book from
our servers, making it unavailable for re-downloading from your archived
items. Any copies you already have on your Kindle devices will not be removed,
but you may choose to remove any such copies yourself.

The total refund amount of $0.99 will be credited to your account in 3-5
business days.

~~~
rbanffy
The fact they didn't remove it this time has no relationship whatsoever with
their ability or willingness to do so in the future. You may call it yours,
but, in the end, they control every aspect of it.

~~~
yan
That's based on nothing. Turn off wireless on your kindle; it's 100% your
device that as far as they're concerned, no longer exists.

~~~
rbanffy
And what happens to pending orders when the network is activated for, say, web
browsing?

The device obeys orders from Amazon, period. It also obeys your orders unless
they conflict with what Amazon ordered.

So much for _your_ gadget.

------
pronoiac
Charlie Stross dislikes the Amazon monopsony:

[http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-
static/2009/10/news_fro...](http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-
static/2009/10/news_from_the_ebook_dimension.html)

Excerpt:

* They're using their monopsony position to fuck over their suppliers (i.e. the publishers) in a manner that threatens a catastrophic crash in author royalties in the medium term (up to 5 years). NB: as a reader, you may enjoy the short term price benefit, but you'll pay for it in the long term in reduction of choice.

* Their actions may start a trans-Atlantic price war between publishers, to the detriment of authors (again, in the medium term).

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dchest
Totally unexpected for me. I thought they were going with countries that have
local Amazon stores. No, my country is listed! Now I don't have to wait for
two weeks for paper books to be delivered. Very nice move, Amazon!

~~~
lecha
The biggest gating factor in making Kindle available internationally is having
to partner with local wireless operator for connectivity. Availability of
country-specific Amazon stores have little to do with it IMHO.

~~~
dchest
The thing is, they ship even to countries without wireless connectivity (e.g.
Belarus). You have to use your computer to make purchases there.

The reason I though why local Amazon stores are deciding factor is that they
already know the market there, have presence, etc.

------
delackner
I and many other people I suspect will be waiting on the sideline a few more
months to see whether Apple's tablet offering really does provide a serious
alternative...

~~~
ntoshev
Or the eBook reader form Asus: [http://www.liliputing.com/2009/09/more-
details-on-the-asus-e...](http://www.liliputing.com/2009/09/more-details-on-
the-asus-ebook-reader.html)

They are different though: e-Ink is way better than LCD for reading outside,
in bright light settings. I bought a Sony reader couple of months ago, never
expected such a move from Amazon. They must have negotiated with hundreds of
mobile operators around the world.

~~~
tallanvor
It sounds like they just negotiated with AT&T since they already have
agreements with operators all over the world.

And I agree that the e-Ink screen is much better for reading than a tablet
ever could be. I can use the Kindle anywhere I could read a normal book,
including out in the sun, without having to worry about the fatigue you get
when using monitors or other backlit screens.

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ankeshk
Its too expensive outside US though... if I get it shipped to India - it'll
cost me $405! And it won't come with the ability to read blogs and online
news...

~~~
bdfh42
Yes but it works just fine as a book reader though - a little time away from
blogs and "news sites" might be good for all our souls.

Still - you are right the price is steep given that you are then going to be
buying more product from Amazon over the lifetime of the device (I wonder what
this is likely to be).

Could be interesting to see what Apple have on offer later in the year with
their new device - could do some interesting things to both the device and
content price points.

~~~
krzyk
Unfortunatelly, besides blogs and online news, this means that wikipedia won't
be accessible also in most countries. The wikipedia feature was the one only
thing that was going to make me buy kinde instead of sony readers.

~~~
chris11
The text to speech feature was also pretty attractive. But I ended up with a
sony prs 600 though, and I'm really happy with it. So while I guess I might
take a closer look if I was getting an ebook reader now, it probably would not
have changed my mind.

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tcc619
no price drop for the dx :(

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m0nty
After UK import and sales tax, the price-drop will mean nothing:

[http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/ar...](http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article6864257.ece)

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gommm
Not available in China :( Can't say it surprises me though... I'll get the
txtr instead <http://reader.txtr.com/>

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eduardoflores
That's it, I've placed my order

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britman
So Kindle for the UK and free 3G access....wow very tempting

~~~
Erwin
Read the fine print though -- it seems like the 3G access can only be used for
books outside of US (I checked UK and Denmark, and both say "Blogs and the
experimental web browser are currently not available for your country"). Not
sure about e.g. Wikipedia.

Also "Service fees for transferring personal documents via Whispernet are
currently $.99 per megabyte." -- but I think that might already be the case
for the US Kindle. That's similar to the fee I pay for basic wireless data
service.

~~~
CrazedGeek
From
[http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=2...](http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200375630&#fees)
:

"Kindle (U.S. Wireless) user: We'll send personal documents to your Kindle via
Whispernet while inside the U.S. wireless coverage area for a fee of $.15 per
megabyte.

Kindle (U.S. & International Wireless) user living in the United States: If
you transfer personal documents to your Kindle via Whispernet while inside the
United States, the fee is $ .15 per megabyte. When travelling outside the
United States, a fee of $.99 per megabyte will apply.

Kindle (U.S. & International Wireless) user living outside the United States:
We'll send personal files to your Kindle via Whispernet for a fee of $ .99
(USD) per megabyte anywhere in the world you access Whispernet service."

------
jacquesm
this is a dupe by the way:

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=866005>

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berntb
No DX internationally? I need that, since I want to read work documents and
code.

I still want a Kindle, but hesitate... the FUD from Apple and Pixel Qi is
working on me. :-)

~~~
dchest
According to some news resource, DX is coming next year.

~~~
berntb
Thanks!

