Up until now owning a Kindle, the cool eBook reader from Amazon, has been the privildge of our Amercian cousins. But no more. Amazon have announced that the Kindle will be available in over 100 countries worldwide and will include free 3G connectivity so you can download books from the Amazon Kindle Store on the go.
The rather oddly named 'Kindle U.S. & International Wireless' can be ordered now for about £175 ($279) from the American Amazon.com website and will ship internationally to over 100 countries (of course including the UK) from October 19th. The total price for UK buyers will probably be around £200 as there is an import tax to pay for items coming into the UK with a value over £145.
Included in each international version of the Kindle is a 3G SIM card that lets you download books right to your Kindle. Amazon are stressing that this SIM card has no annual contracts, no monthly fees, and you don’t need to hunt for Wi-Fi hotspots to download you books. However some keen eyed readers have noticed that the small print for the 3G roaming does mention that “when traveling abroad, you can download books wirelessly from the Kindle Store or your Archived Items for a fee of $1.99." Abroad means not in the USA, so UK customers will need to pay the extra £1.25 per book.
The Kindle is less than 1 cm think and weighs just 284 grams . Its 2GB of memory allows you to store over 1500 books internally. To get books users pay for and download them at the Kindle Store which contains over 280,000 books and includes UK newspapers such as The Times and The Telegraph. Pricing wise, New York Times Best Sellers and New Releases cost around £9 but the Kindle store has over 70,000 titles are priced under £4.
“We have millions of customers in countries all over the world who read English-language books,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “Kindle enables these customers to think of a book and download it wirelessly in less than 60 seconds.”
Since this is actually a USA version of the Kindle, the Amazon web site notes that the Kindle ships with a U.S. power adapter and a micro-USB cable for charging your Kindle via a computer USB port. The U.S. power adapter supports voltages between 100V – 240V. You will need a travel adaptor to make it fit into a UK socket.
Amazon has future plans to release a UK specific version of the Kindle enabling UK owners to purchase the Kindle and Kindle books in sterling from our Amazon.co.uk site.
Read more about it on Zath
4 thoughts on “3G Kindle Coming to the UK in Just 12 Days”
I will wait until this is sold in the UK through Amazon.co.uk, without the stupid import tax and high delivery rates. Then you shouldnt get charged the £1.25 extra per book. I mean are Amazon owned by Microsoft or something? Extracting cash from every orifice available. Morons.
From Amazon.com
For non-U.S. customers, there are also no additional charges for wireless delivery outside your home country.
Free Wireless: Free 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle. No monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots. For non-U.S. customers, there are also no additional charges for wireless delivery in or outside your home country. See Coverage Map. See Wireless Terms and Conditions
Worth the import tax IMO.