Amazon Kindle not coming to Germany any time soon, says report

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I totally agree. I think that it should be an option but not the only way, and a customer should be able to decide if he buys the device without that feature.

You can do that now.

[netseeker]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Telecoms *always* need more customers. This would be a new revenue stream and if German users follow U.S. user patterns, there won't be heavy usage of the system because the Kindle browser is too slow. People will mainly use it for quick downloads of their Kindle books.

That's a contradiction in terms, isn't it?

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by netseeker

That's a contradiction in terms, isn't it?

How so?

[kaas]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

You can do that now.

Yes,

albeit without a warranty, with horrendous shipping and VAT, as well as trouble buying books if you do not have an US credit card...

not worth the effort for me...

cheers,

kaas

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by kaas

Yes,

albeit without a warranty, with horrendous shipping and VAT, as well as trouble buying books if you do not have an US credit card...

not worth the effort for me...

cheers,

kaas

But you *can* still do it.

[netseeker]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

How so?

The downloads cause traffic on the Telecoms systems? It doesn't matter whether the browser is slow or not. Apart from this our Telecoms act very different than in the US...they are oligoplists and don't care about every customer if they don't get paid "well" as it seems to be the case with Amazon.

[kaas]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

But you *can* still do it.

true enough

you got me there

cheers,
kaas

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by netseeker

The downloads cause traffic on the Telecoms systems? It doesn't matter whether the browser is slow or not. Apart from this our Telecoms act very different than in the US...they are oligoplists and don't care about every customer if they don't get paid "well" as it seems to be the case with Amazon.

When I wrote that, I was saying that a book download of less than 1 minute is light usage where as surfing the internet with the Kindle browser is slow and tedious and therefore heavy.

I have to take your word for what the telecoms in Germany (or anywhere in Europe) would consider light vs. heavy as I have no experience with them.

[netseeker]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

When I wrote that, I was saying that a book download of less than 1 minute is light usage where as surfing the internet with the Kindle browser is slow and tedious and therefore heavy.

Ah, maybe i got you wrong. Anyway our telecoms (for mobile networks) want usually get paid for dowloaded/uploaded megabytes rather than time of network usage.

Originally Posted by daffy4u

I have to take your word for what the telecoms in Germany (or anywhere in Europe) would consider light vs. heavy as I have no experience with them.

I guess the problem is that our telecoms want to get paid for the volume of data and that Amazon (or the users) would just have to pay too much for the ebook downloads.

[sunsetsylvia]

Good riddance amazon, I say.
Since amazonfail I've cut down my "real book" business with them, and wouldn't have gotten the e-book one anyway.

[zerospinboson]

Originally Posted by netseeker

The downloads cause traffic on the Telecoms systems? It doesn't matter whether the browser is slow or not. Apart from this our Telecoms act very different than in the US...they are oligoplists and don't care about every customer if they don't get paid "well" as it seems to be the case with Amazon.

Actually, I wouldn't bet on Germany's telecom/ISP sector being substantially worse than the US's.. From what I hear they're pretty extortionist over there as well. (The idiotic "pay to receive" SMS surcharge comes to mind here as a first example; see 1, 2, 3)

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by tompe

Nearly all the time? Especially now when people have netbooks with 3G modems in them. Then the netbook can act as access point to the Kindle.

I think that the bookshop and the search facilities are more important selling points.

Actually I think more phones for access would be available if the device support Bluetooth. Practically all the phones have this capability. I doubt is netbooks are in everyones house yet and certainly not ones with 3G modems. However, either way the user ends up paying for the download which is not what Amazon wanted. In Europe the data download can get costly I believe.

Dale

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

You can do that now.

If you're not from USA you can buy it through different ways buy you can't register it, so no access to the settings, and you can't buy the books without tricks. For me, that isn't the same thing we're talking about.

[HansTWN]

I know from personal experience that both US and European phone services are way, way overpriced. I prefer the way it is done in most Asian countries. You can buy the phone you want at an unsubsidized price and pay a minimum for service. You also have the choice to enter a two year contract and buy a subsidized phone, a good option when you must make lots of calls. So I do most of my major web browsing on the phone over WiFi and just use E-Mail and IM and visit WAP websites on 2G/3G/HSDPA. And I never spend more than 10-15 dollars each month on my mobile phone, text, and data bill. And with unlimited data for about USD 30.- you could use Skype for calling.

And European carriers are probably a lot less flexible when it comes to pricing something like Amazon's service than Sprint is. Just as Verizon never would have agreed to a deal like that.

[netseeker]

Originally Posted by zerospinboson

Actually, I wouldn't bet on Germany's telecom/ISP sector being substantially worse than the US's.. From what I hear they're pretty extortionist over there as well. (The idiotic "pay to receive" SMS surcharge comes to mind here as a first example; see 1, 2, 3)

Wow, i never thought that something of that sort could be possible in the US.