Quote:
Originally Posted by HansTWN
You forgot that Itunes' regional restrictions are MUCH WORSE than Amazon's. You cannot buy anything on US Itunes if you are not an American resident and the same thing in Itunes elsewhere costs 50% more. And don't think for a minute that books that are not available for your country on Amazon will be on Itunes!  And the Kindle can display other languages, just use PDF.
Of course, the iPad will also be more expensive in your country than in the US. And buy the same ratio as the Kindle. So that 599 USD iPad (forget the 499.- 16GB version, that is a marketing gimmick, not a real option) will be USD 900 for you including all charges. |
I just thought I'd mention that Japan is not MY country, I just happen to live here
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I don't believe that the iPad will be more expensive here? Why should it? I will not be ordering from overseas and paying inflated shipping costs, insurance and import tax. It will be sold locally, just like all my iPods and iPhones. If I have a problem with my iPad, I will just go online to Apple Japan. It will be picked it up from my home within 24 hours, and returned, repaired or replaced (by hand currier again) within another 48 hours. Yes... THIS is Japan...
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iBooks may not be available on launch worldwide, but I'm very confident that won't be for long. Kindle/Amazon ebooks took about 4-5 years (I forgot the exact amount of time) to go international.... I really don't think that will be the case here. The other thing is, that I don't actually buy any music from iTunes, although I have hundreds of music albums and audiobooks in my iTunes. I have only bought about about 6 or 7 songs from the iTunes store in the 6 years since I got my first iPod! I often surf through the iTunes store though, and listen to samples of songs.... there seem to be millions... so I'm not sure what could be missing from iTunes Japan - maybe a teenager will find some things missing. Maybe it's just because I'm not into the Lady Gaga type of trash, (sorry, just my opinion) that I don't know what is missing.
Since I got my iPhone, I (and other family members) have bought quite a few Apps, but most are free.
If I can't import my books to iBooks and use the cool bookshelf, like one can do with your own music, using cool coverflow etc. it will be disappointing... but I'll get over it. I will just use the other methods of reading my books, ie. using Stanza and other Apps.