I wrote a long piece on this 3G Web browsing confusion on Kindle Touch 3G -- the blog article is titled "
Clarification needed from Amazon re Kindle Touch 3/G/WiFi's 3G-experimental web browsing feature or omission - Update:"
Amazon hasn't given any clarification that I can see but it seems they may be very slowly educating their customer reps now to the apparent reality that their product page wording everywhere does point to their not including free 3G web browsing on the Kindle Touch e-readers despite early Customer Support responses saying they were.
In the last year, though, Amazon has ALWAYS just said on country-specific pages that the Kindle 3 3G experimental web browser would work via WiFi -- BUT even with that wording over the last year, it has also worked with 3G.
Now they've added the word "only" about the WiFi capability but barely noticeable -- within the paragraph on "Battery" use -- where few would notice it. And they've not changed that wording in the last 2 days.
I did write their executive offices to ask them to please clarify this as people are trying to make buying decisions and their customer reps have been replying to one and all that the Touch devices WILL do the same web browsing BUT their product pages are unchanged despite those words.
Clarity was needed (to understate it).
I quoted some of those Kindle customer support replies, reported at Amazon Kindle forums, and those were 100% positive about Kindle Touch free-3G-web access being available for Touch models as it is with Keyboard models
UNTIL late last night and this morning. The responses from Kindle support reps have changed after that.
Now it seems that the word may be out to more customer reps that things are different with Kindle Touch.
Amazon probably doesn't want, apparently, to say they've dropped a feature, so that feature remains available with the Kindle Keyboard model (which is selling as part of the "Kindle Family" -- and, as someone noted, 3G web access is awkward enough with the keyboard's 5-way-controller to make overuse of 3G web browsing less likely than on a Touch device.
The wording that yifanlu received from Kindle customer representative
Pushka is clear -- the support rep feels 3G web will continue on the old K3, a device that's now called "Kindle Keyboard 3G." Yifanlu reported this specific response:
Quote:
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"The Kindle 3 (Kindle Keyboard) supports free 3G experimental internet browsing and I can confirm that it will continue to do so in the future. This feature won't be removed from Kindle 3. "
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That is the most definite answer I've ever seen from Kindle support reps in written form involving the 'future' which Amazon rarely makes statements about.
*** BUT this seeming change (or new policy for new devices) appears to be *supported* by the
web-access table I've referenced at the Link that SteveEisenberg gave earlier, at
http://kindleworld.blogspot.com/p/co...3g-access.html
I reference and link to the table that Amazon UK does, and info on that online table has always matched the 3G web access described for the Amazon.com country-specific product pages.
Amazon UK JUST changed wording on that table and I noted it the other day when I wrote an update to the "
Clarification Needed..." blog entry.
Instead of saying (as it has for some time)
---} "The experimental web browser is free to use over Kindle's 3G or Wi-Fi connections."
... it NOW says:
--- } "The experimental web browser is free to use over Kindle Keyboard's 3G or Wi-Fi connections."
However, it's also true that shipments of Touch Kindles are not even due in the UK
---- "Ships from and sold by Amazon Digital Services. U.S. only" --
so in a way, it's still unclear as they don't HAVE the Touch models -- but it seems to me that Amazon is definitely leaving things so that they CAN just say the free 3G web browsing is not a part of the new Kindle Touch.
No 'change' ... No 'removal' --- because it was given for Kindle Keyboard (and previous Kindle models) and it still is.
BUT I have no idea what they are thinking. The answers today are not encouraging for free 3G Web browsing with Kindle Touch 3G. But I'm glad they'll continue it with the Kindle Keyboard (we now have strong indications of that, at least for awhile).
A lot may depend on negotiations with AT&T as the latter try to deal with not enough bandwidth, the government not looking kindly on the deal to bring in TMobile -- and in the past, the really good deal for Amazon, $-wise, was said to have been with Sprint.
But Amazon got this going with AT&T worldwide, which was something (no other e-reader even tried to do free Wikipedia access along with the 3G downloading of store books, internationally) -- and at least, for now, we have some assurances it'll stay for awhile with the Kindle 3/Kindle Keyboard 3G model.
Will be watching the Kindle forums and this thread though.
- Andrys