RUMOR: Kindle coming to the UK next week

[Nate the great]

I'm going to take the following with a grain of salt. The BookSeller is a good blog, but they've been wrong several times before about supposed Kindle launches.

The Bookseller has heard from authoritative sources that Amazon.com will finally announce the arrival of its e-book device the Kindle in the UK next week. The news confirms the story first reported by The Bookseller in July that publishers were expecting an October release of the device. An announcement is now likely ahead of Frankfurt.

One source told The Bookseller: "The key things they needed to tie up have been tied up. The rumours I've heard are all saying next week." The source confirmed that publishers had signed non disclosure agreements so would not be able to comment on the record. But added: "I've heard it from multiple reliable sources. I think they want to avoid the general kerfuffle of Frankfurt."

from here

[The-eBook-Reader]

The rumor is bound to come true sooner or later.

[JeremyZ]

The Kindle is going to get wiped out by Sony if they don't make it a global platform.

[Mike L]

I'd really like this to be true, but I'll believe it when I see it.

[June]

That would be wonderful (since I happen to be travelling in England in October) but I doubt it....

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by JeremyZ

The Kindle is going to get wiped out by Sony if they don't make it a global platform.

If not sony alone, then at least the mass of ePub-supporting devices together.

[Faenad]

It would be great if UK customers got access to the US kindle store (both price & offering wise). Yet I doubt it will be the case, and in that case Amazon UK offering would not be as interesting.

[Xerxes]

Originally Posted by Crowl

If not sony alone, then at least the mass of ePub-supporting devices together.

I think that'll happen regardless. Sony and Kindle maybe the biggest mainstream wise, but they seem content with coming out with product and staying the same for years as opposed to the "little" guys who seem to being evolving and changing every time you look around. It only takes for someone like Astak or whoever to get their own firmware team, to keep fixing all the small issue that keep popping up.

If only ebooks had Custom Firmware heroes like, Dark Alex of PSP fame, or Cyanogen who does Android custom ROMs.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Faenad

It would be great if UK customers got access to the US kindle store (both price & offering wise). Yet I doubt it will be the case, and in that case Amazon UK offering would not be as interesting.

That would be the only reason to even think about buying a Kindle. The ability to get a better offering. If they only offer the ugliest reader on the market, and not the selection of books, it's absolutely not worth the trouble over any of the other readers around. Especially as most books stores in Europe are going towards epub, which the Kindle can't read.

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

That would be the only reason to even think about buying a Kindle. The ability to get a better offering. If they only offer the ugliest reader on the market, and not the selection of books, it's absolutely not worth the trouble over any of the other readers around. Especially as most books stores in Europe are going towards epub, which the Kindle can't read.

It also wouldn't make sense for amazon to sell the kindle if it wasn't being used as a way to sell more books from amazon either.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Faenad

It would be great if UK customers got access to the US kindle store (both price & offering wise).

That is impossible, because of geographic restrictions on ebooks (imposed by authors and publishers).

It will be interesting to see how many titles the Kindle starts out with in the UK. It will be less than in the US, but how many less? Note that the standard DTP contract grants Amazon non-exclusive world-wide rights, and not all ebooks at Fictionwise or Books on Board are restricted in the UK (and can therefore be sold on the UK Kindle just as on the US Kindle). I think it is quite likely that Amazon will start out with a huge lead in titles in the UK, and in part this will be because it does not require ePub. There are legacy titles created before ePub existed and even some recent titles that are MOBI/AZW only.

[JSWolf]

Maybe it's because Sony & Amazon don't have much that needs fixing. Better QA out of the box.

[neilmarr]

Amazon's policy so far means that small independent non-US publishers like my own wee house had their ebooks (but not paperbacks) removed from all Amazon sites when the Kindle was released, because we don't have registered offices in the United States. If and when the Kindle spreads its wings and enters the rest of the world, it'll be interesting to see what new restrictions and shady deals Amazon will come up with. The company's greed is breathtakingly impressive in the brazenness of its ingenuity, scope and scale. N

[JSWolf]

neilmarr, have you tried publishing with Sony?

http://ebookstore.sony.com/publishers/

[queentess]

Originally Posted by neilmarr

Amazon's policy so far means that small independent non-US publishers like my own wee house had their ebooks (but not paperbacks) removed from all Amazon sites when the Kindle was released, because we don't have registered offices in the United States. If and when the Kindle spreads its wings and enters the rest of the world, it'll be interesting to see what new restrictions and shady deals Amazon will come up with. The company's greed is breathtakingly impressive in the brazenness of its ingenuity, scope and scale. N

You're upset they won't let you publish (understandable), but you somehow associate this with greed? They can't make money off of you if they're not publishing your books, so I don't see how this is a logical conclusion. Just sounds like you're upset for not getting a piece of the delicious Amazon pie.