Amazon Kindle goes international

[andothfc]

The selection of books available to the UK seems very poor (quality wise, not quantity).

Is it possible/advisable to register my UK Kindle(when it arrives) as US as the $1.99 surcharge only makes it the same price as the UK books anyway, but with far more choice.

[Jreagan]

If youi buy the refurbished kindle 2, I was able to have it ship overseas, for $219 us dollars, and then use my computer for downloads. I do have a us bank acct and address (FPO), but it may be another cheaper option

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's including the $30 cover, isn't it, Paul? I've ordered it too, and mine's the same.

Is that including tax? Because when I went to the checkout (didn't finish), it said "0" for taxes. And as far as I know, any device over €250, including shipping and handling, you must pay taxes over.

[Flub]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's including the $30 cover, isn't it, Paul? I've ordered it too, and mine's the same.

That's exactly what I've ordered. To be honest the book selection isn't spectacular (A huge chunk of those books are just multiple copies of the same PD books) but this is what starts the ball rolling. Amazon are taking the Kindle worldwide and I fully expect the publishers and authors to start jumping on board.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Flub

That's exactly what I've ordered. To be honest the book selection isn't spectacular (A huge chunk of those books are just multiple copies of the same PD books) but this is what starts the ball rolling. Amazon are taking the Kindle worldwide and I fully expect the publishers and authors to start jumping on board.

There are some books on the Kindle store that I'd love to have, but not enough to want to buy something over €300...

[amjbrown]

Originally Posted by mores

Where are those figures?

Pretty much everywhere, part of the Bezos interviews about the international version.

On the Wired website for example...

As proof of the way that the Kindle has changed reader habits, Bezos brings up an amazing statistic. Earlier this year, he startled people by revealing that of books available on both Kindle and paper versions, 35 percent of copies sold by Amazon were Kindle versions. Now, he says, the number is up to 48 percent. This means that a lot of people have bought Kindles (Amazon won’t reveal the figures) and that Kindle owners buy a lot of books.

Here for the full article...

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/...tional-kindle/

But it is lots of other places too.

In searching for the reference (I saw it in my RSS deluge and had to dig something out) I have found two alternatives (i) 48%, and (ii) 48 Kindle copies for every 100 paper copies. Both are impressive in my book!

amjb

[JeremyZ]

Regarding the new pricing:

I bought my K2 less than a month ago for $299. I just asked them for a $40 refund or credit to my account. We'll see how it goes. If they refuse, I think I can just return it and buy a new one, so I don't think they will. Wish me luck!

[mores]

Thanks, amjb. You're right, impressive numbers.

I like this bit:

As proof of the way that the Kindle has changed reader habits, Bezos brings up an amazing statistic.

Uh huh ... the kindle changes reader habits?

[Nate the great]

I moved the thread to News & Commentary.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

I moved the thread to News & Commentary.

Good, saves me time switching between the fora

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by llreader

Terisa,

Does this mean that you registered an iPhone and can buy Kindle books without the Kindle? Or did I misunderstand you? This is something that I might like to do after I buy a Sony Reader.

Yes, you've understood well.

[neilmarr]

This site is so big and busy (fortunately) that I can't find where you've put this thread. Mind you, I'm pretty much a deal loss. Hoots. Neil

[pdurrant]

You're quite right - I neglected to mention that I'd also ordered the cover. I wouldn't want a glass substrate ebook reader without a cover.

So - whose will arrive first? :-)

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's including the $30 cover, isn't it, Paul? I've ordered it too, and mine's the same.

[fuzzy_dunlop]

International Kindle might be an expat's dream. For English speaking expats, getting books abroad has always been costly and difficult. Traditionally we've had 3 options, buy English books from local stores, order online, or buy from used bookstores locally.

• Local stores are frustrating as the selection is very small and the prices are not fair currency conversions, meaning the book has $10 printed as the price but the cost you pay in locally currency is double that amount. Selection is always awful as well and they tend to only carry a few popular fiction titles - let's see Harry Potter, Harry Potter and Harry Potter, *sigh*
• Ordering online is ok, but shipping can be expensive. I once paid a ridiculous $35 shipping for a textbook I needed. Since Amazon Japan and Amazon are essentially the same company you can usually get free shipping in Japan but I imagine elsewhere in the world you wouldn't be so lucky.
• Used English bookstores are not a great deal either. I find it almost criminal how they give you only about $2 store credit (or $1 cash) for a book they will then sell for $10. Not to mention they refuse to buy books with small defects, yet the entire store is filled with cigarette smelling, silverfish infested books - I'm sure expats in the more tropical humid regions feel my pain on this one.

But the International Kindle may offer a way to get a large selection of books at low prices overseas without dealing with the usual pains. I have steered away from Kindle because of DRM but I may have to live with it and hope they remove DRM sometime in the future (and just maybe a firmware update for native pdf and unicode character support).

[The-eBook-Reader]

Kindle International: the flood gates of complaints are now open