Amazon launched its German Kindle-store today

CommonReader · 04-21-2011, 10:26 AM

Amazon has launched its German Kindle store today. Right from the start they are offering about 25,000 titles in German, which is about the same number of titles that are available from other sellers as epub titles. As book prices are fixed in Germany Amazon has no price advantage over other bookstores.
This will certainly give ebooks a huge boost in Germany. Personally I just hope that Amazon will not achieve the same dominance in that segment as it has in the US.

DMB · 04-21-2011, 12:50 PM

When will we get French?

EowynCarter · 04-21-2011, 01:26 PM

Whhooo ! Amazon finally woke up !

Quote:

Originally Posted by DMB

When will we get French?

+ 1.

Well, actually, I'm quitte happy with amazon NOT ruling the market in france.
Though that would be a good knew for the french kindle owners. Bad news for the rest. Well, if it can make the publishers move theirs asses, guess we would benefit from that.

t-town · 04-21-2011, 01:51 PM

When is Amazon going to realise it needs a amazon.eu store? Only Kindle-owners of Germany and Switzerland and Luxemburg can order the kindle from Amazon.de. And all those other German-speaking people in Europe?

karunaji · 04-21-2011, 02:04 PM

I also thought that it is a strange move not to take advantage of a common European economic area. Books probably have stupid agency made georestrictions but why not sell Kindle for euros to everybody in the EU? It is not that there are customs restrictions or shipping issues or anything.

EowynCarter · 04-21-2011, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by t-town

When is Amazon going to realise it needs a amazon.eu store? Only Kindle-owners of Germany and Switzerland and Luxemburg can order the kindle from Amazon.de. And all those other German-speaking people in Europe?

Mmm, Switzerland ? I see

Quote:

Sie sind nicht Kunde aus Deutschland, Österreich oder Luxemburg?

That bad for my sister, she's in Switzerland.

CommonReader · 04-21-2011, 03:11 PM

As an act of defiance against the Amazon juggernaut I went ahead and bought a PRS-650 today.

Unfortunately, as a response to this brazen act of consumerism my wife immediately demanded a handover of my beloved PRS-300 for her personal use.

I have to see if I can fend these demands off.

t-town · 04-21-2011, 03:16 PM

oops my fault, it is indeed Austria and not Switzerland.

John Carroll · 04-21-2011, 06:41 PM

And authors now have a new brown bar of shame. Or is it beige? I can't seem to get it straight in my mind.

MartinC · 04-21-2011, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CommonReader

Amazon has launched its German Kindle store today. Right from the start they are offering about 25,000 titles in German, which is about the same number of titles that are available from other sellers as epub titles.

There will be quite a lot of English titles too. Anyone who has published through Kindle Direct Publishing in the US or the UK will have their book in the German Kindle store automatically. Book descriptions will be in English (assuming they were in English in the first place...). It looks as if the author profile has to be set up separately, though, as it does for UK and US.

CommonReader · 04-22-2011, 02:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Carroll

And authors now have a new brown bar of shame. Or is it beige? I can't seem to get it straight in my mind.

Sorry, but I simply don't get the meaning of your post. Do you care to elaborate?

Quote:

Originally Posted by MartinC

There will be quite a lot of English titles too. Anyone who has published through Kindle Direct Publishing in the US or the UK will have their book in the German Kindle store automatically. Book descriptions will be in English (assuming they were in English in the first place...). It looks as if the author profile has to be set up separately, though, as it does for UK and US.

This is obviously a huge bonus of their store. It will be interesting to see which books they can't offer because of georestrictions, though. It will also be interesting to see the prices as compared to the US and the UK.

Giggleton · 04-22-2011, 03:03 AM

If you want to know where they will be opening up next take a look at their current job openings for Kindle content managers.

Valkrider · 04-22-2011, 03:45 AM

All US companies not just Amazon need to wake up to Europe as a whole rather than individual countries. With the free movement of EU citizens from one EU country to another you have many "ex-pats" in all the various EU states.

I am a UK citizen but live in Spain. I speak some Spanish BUT prefer my books etc in English. If I wanted to buy a Kindle I can't buy one from Amazon UK as I live in Spain BUT I can buy one from Amazon US (there isn't an Amazon ES). That means I have to pay tax and import for a US purchase but if I bought one from the UK I wouldn't. It's crazy.

Rant over.

EowynCarter · 04-22-2011, 04:19 AM

Being expat is where you get the worse of geo-restriction.
I was banned from renting video on TF1 vision when in Denmark. I also has steam refusing to sell me me games, because the country where my IP was registered didn't match the country the credit card was registered to.

DMB · 04-22-2011, 04:23 AM

Europe may be a single market in some respects, but there are a whole lot of products that you can't buy online from sites in different European countries.

04-21-2011, 10:26 AM	#1
CommonReader Fanatic Posts: 528 Karma: 2530000 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Sony PRS-T3, PRS-650, Vaio Tap 11, iPad Mini	Amazon launched its German Kindle-store today Amazon has launched its German Kindle store today. Right from the start they are offering about 25,000 titles in German, which is about the same number of titles that are available from other sellers as epub titles. As book prices are fixed in Germany Amazon has no price advantage over other bookstores. This will certainly give ebooks a huge boost in Germany. Personally I just hope that Amazon will not achieve the same dominance in that segment as it has in the US.

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04-21-2011, 12:50 PM	#2
DMB Old Git Posts: 958 Karma: 1840790 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Switzerland (mostly) Device: Two kindle PWs wifi, kindle fire, iPad3 wifi	When will we get French?

04-21-2011, 01:51 PM	#4
t-town Connoisseur Posts: 69 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: Kindle	When is Amazon going to realise it needs a amazon.eu store? Only Kindle-owners of Germany and Switzerland and Luxemburg can order the kindle from Amazon.de. And all those other German-speaking people in Europe?

04-21-2011, 02:04 PM	#5
karunaji Evangelist Posts: 421 Karma: 1033566 Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Latvia Device: Kindle 3 Wifi, Bookeen Opus	I also thought that it is a strange move not to take advantage of a common European economic area. Books probably have stupid agency made georestrictions but why not sell Kindle for euros to everybody in the EU? It is not that there are customs restrictions or shipping issues or anything.

04-21-2011, 03:11 PM	#7
CommonReader Fanatic Posts: 528 Karma: 2530000 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Sony PRS-T3, PRS-650, Vaio Tap 11, iPad Mini	As an act of defiance against the Amazon juggernaut I went ahead and bought a PRS-650 today. Unfortunately, as a response to this brazen act of consumerism my wife immediately demanded a handover of my beloved PRS-300 for her personal use. I have to see if I can fend these demands off.

04-21-2011, 03:16 PM	#8
t-town Connoisseur Posts: 69 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2009 Device: Kindle	oops my fault, it is indeed Austria and not Switzerland.

04-21-2011, 06:41 PM	#9
John Carroll kookoo Posts: 1,461 Karma: 7772454 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Colorado Springs Device: Kindle Paperwhite, Nook, LG4	And authors now have a new brown bar of shame. Or is it beige? I can't seem to get it straight in my mind.

04-22-2011, 03:03 AM	#12
Giggleton Banned Posts: 1,687 Karma: 4368191 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Oregon Device: Kindle3	If you want to know where they will be opening up next take a look at their current job openings for Kindle content managers.

04-22-2011, 03:45 AM	#13
Valkrider Addict Posts: 316 Karma: 1250000 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: UK Device: Kobo Libra, iPadAir2, PRS600, iPhone 6, iPod, Palm TX	All US companies not just Amazon need to wake up to Europe as a whole rather than individual countries. With the free movement of EU citizens from one EU country to another you have many "ex-pats" in all the various EU states. I am a UK citizen but live in Spain. I speak some Spanish BUT prefer my books etc in English. If I wanted to buy a Kindle I can't buy one from Amazon UK as I live in Spain BUT I can buy one from Amazon US (there isn't an Amazon ES). That means I have to pay tax and import for a US purchase but if I bought one from the UK I wouldn't. It's crazy. Rant over.

04-22-2011, 04:19 AM	#14
EowynCarter Wizard Posts: 4,337 Karma: 4000000 Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: Paris Device: Cybooks; Sony PRS-T1	Being expat is where you get the worse of geo-restriction. I was banned from renting video on TF1 vision when in Denmark. I also has steam refusing to sell me me games, because the country where my IP was registered didn't match the country the credit card was registered to.

04-22-2011, 04:23 AM	#15
DMB Old Git Posts: 958 Karma: 1840790 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: Switzerland (mostly) Device: Two kindle PWs wifi, kindle fire, iPad3 wifi	Europe may be a single market in some respects, but there are a whole lot of products that you can't buy online from sites in different European countries.