MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Guardian: No Kindle for the UK (or anywhere else outside US)

cstross · 06-10-2008, 05:27 AM

There are multiple problems with launching Kindle in Europe. Let me enumerate:

1. Hardware. There's no CDMA network here. They'd need to switch to either GSM or UMTS (3G). My money is on 3G because although GSM is a cheap/mature technology, it's slow; downloading a 1Mb novel onto a cellphone (or a Kindle) is sluggish, running at modem speeds (5-10 minutes). That might be acceptable in and of itself, but what about web browsing, or indeed, browsing the Kindle store? If it's too sluggish, that would render it unattractive to users. So I suspect they need a cheap low-power UMTS chipset before they can consider building a World Kindle.

2. Carriers. The various national arms of the big cellcos like T-Mobile or Vodafone don't interoperate well -- they're effectively separate national cellcos. Amazon would have to strike a deal with potentially as many as 25 cellco subsidiaries/operating units in order to get Kindle to work throughout the EU.

3. Language. English is not the majority language in the EU; while there are probably 80 million people who speak it as effectively a first language (I'm including the Netherlands along with the UK and Ireland), and another 120 million who have it as a second language, Kindle would flop in the non-English areas without access to local language material.

4. Rights. The rights to publish ebooks are sold as a subsidiary right to the right to publish paper-books, on a territorial basis, and in the English language world, these rights are frequently split between UK & Commonwealth and USA & Canada. Which means it would be actionable for US publishers to allow some of their titles to be sold outside North America. This is probably what's holding up the Sony Store in my view, and it's going to cause royal headaches for Amazon if they try to launch Kindle in Europe, because suddenly they can't use those 125,000 titles they've got in their US store -- they've got to talk to local publishers, or risk facing lawsuits.

If it was just any one or two of these obstacles, then I suspect Bezos would want to steamroller ahead anyway. But the combination of roadblocks makes for a formidable mountain to climb.

06-10-2008, 05:27 AM	#28
cstross Cynic Posts: 86 Karma: 514 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland Device: Lots, started with a Psion 3 circa 1998	There are multiple problems with launching Kindle in Europe. Let me enumerate: 1. Hardware. There's no CDMA network here. They'd need to switch to either GSM or UMTS (3G). My money is on 3G because although GSM is a cheap/mature technology, it's slow; downloading a 1Mb novel onto a cellphone (or a Kindle) is sluggish, running at modem speeds (5-10 minutes). That might be acceptable in and of itself, but what about web browsing, or indeed, browsing the Kindle store? If it's too sluggish, that would render it unattractive to users. So I suspect they need a cheap low-power UMTS chipset before they can consider building a World Kindle. 2. Carriers. The various national arms of the big cellcos like T-Mobile or Vodafone don't interoperate well -- they're effectively separate national cellcos. Amazon would have to strike a deal with potentially as many as 25 cellco subsidiaries/operating units in order to get Kindle to work throughout the EU. 3. Language. English is not the majority language in the EU; while there are probably 80 million people who speak it as effectively a first language (I'm including the Netherlands along with the UK and Ireland), and another 120 million who have it as a second language, Kindle would flop in the non-English areas without access to local language material. 4. Rights. The rights to publish ebooks are sold as a subsidiary right to the right to publish paper-books, on a territorial basis, and in the English language world, these rights are frequently split between UK & Commonwealth and USA & Canada. Which means it would be actionable for US publishers to allow some of their titles to be sold outside North America. This is probably what's holding up the Sony Store in my view, and it's going to cause royal headaches for Amazon if they try to launch Kindle in Europe, because suddenly they can't use those 125,000 titles they've got in their US store -- they've got to talk to local publishers, or risk facing lawsuits. If it was just any one or two of these obstacles, then I suspect Bezos would want to steamroller ahead anyway. But the combination of roadblocks makes for a formidable mountain to climb.