AfterDawn: News

Amazon drops Kindle price, goes international

Amazon has taken the popular Kindle device international today, making the e-book reader available to over 100 countries including China and most of the EU.

Additionally, the company has dropped the price of the Kindle in the US to $260 USD from $300, and selling the international version for $279 USD.



The international device will begin shipping on October 19th and will give worldwide users access to 200,000 English books and 85 international and US newspapers.

“Our vision for Kindle is every book ever printed, in print or out of print, in every language, all available within 60 seconds,” CEO Jeff Bezos added. “That's a multi-decade vision.”

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 7 Oct 2009 16:51

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• 5 comments

• Josipher

  wow..thats incredible. finally something usefull. beats the hell out of waiting almost a month for books to ship from US.
  anyone has any experience with the kindle he would like to share?

  7.10.2009 21:43 #1

• Ryoohki

  I doubt Amazon's dream of having every book ever printed will come to pass. Google is the one who will rule the world some day, dispite the heat they are getting over google books. I personally wouldn't spend nearly 300 bucks on something to read ebooks on and only that. This is why people have laptops (or even netbooks). Hell, I can read ebooks on my nintendo ds (which I do quite often for when I am at work and there is down time). If I am in the mood to purchase books I will spend my money in an actual book store to have a physical copy. At least I can resell or trade it should I choose to do so. It would be different I suppose if the cost of digital copies of new releases were not so damn expensive. It is really crazy. Give me hardcopy any day for those prices.

  7.10.2009 22:19 #2

• Josipher

  now thats ridiculous..even if you bought a book for 30 bucks what you think your going to sell it for?..its not like a game that still has retail value..the only books i could think about selling are first edition hardcovers. the prices may be high for new releases but they are still cheaper than the physical hardcover and i dont see the merit of paperback cauyse they wear out fast and id only buy if out of reluctance. im not sure if i will buy this but on the long run getting books on it is going to cost you less in the long run and save you more space if your a bookworm (obviously you dont need this if you read 1 book a month) than buying the physical copy. despite the steep price i still think this is quite the gadget. and the fact that there are no downloading fees is in itself very attractive.
  and about you saying you could read PDFs on your DS..good for you i can read mine on it too theres still the convenience problem of a tiny screen and havin to scroll every 5 lines you read. the entire purpose of this device at least from a consumers point of view is convenience and innovation. the fact that you get the book through 3G in seconds have alot of storage and have an innovative way to read is what this device is about. and ofc the dream wont come to pass. its like nintendo saying they wanted to make everyone a gamer. thats a VISION and a way to sell,no more.

  8.10.2009 02:33 #3

• Gnawnivek

  This is great news for readers outside the US. However, don't be fooled by the word "international" because the language support is still English. So, for example, if you want to read Korean books, this "international" Kindle will not do it. What it really means that if you live in Korea (North or South) and you want to read a book just released in the US, normally you have to wait few weeks (or more) to have the real book shipped to your country. Well, with this "international" Kindle, you can have the e-book within minutes!
  
  As for words on the Kindle usage, if you read a lot, this toy is for you. If not, stick to real books. Things i like about the Kindle (2.0):
  1. Books delivered wirelessly
  2. You can sample most books for free
  3. You can take note and e-mail/share your notes
  4. Very good battery life (with Wireless turned off, you don't have to charge for a month!)
  5. Great for Manga (you'll need the app to convert the page)
  6. There are apps converts PDF to Kindle formats, so you can transfer a lot of your own collections to the Kindle via a computer.
  7. Build-in dictionary, very cool!
  8. Can go on-line and free too, if you want to read news/sport/money etc...
  
  It's $100 cheaper than the initial launch price now...

  8.10.2009 10:11 #4

• KillerBug

  WOW! Now people from many different countries can have their books edited and deleted without their permission. This is truly a landmark day in the persuit of fascism. In the future, there will be no need to burn books...just press DEL.
  
  BTW...when I first read this article's title, "Amazon drops Kindle price", I thought that they had made it free...in hopes of paying for the hardware through overpriced ebook rentals (they do not sell ebooks...if they did, they would not be able to censor and delete them remotely). Even this seemed like a bad deal...but I was thinking of getting one just to use the screen for something usefull.

  9.10.2009 04:17 #5