Kindle e-book goes international

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 07 October 2009 09:54

Your IT - Home IT

Kindle owners can start reading a newly purchased book in less than 60 seconds when they are in a 3G area. Download costs are built into book prices, so there's no monthly fee or data plan involved.

Up to 1500 books can be stored on a Kindle. More than 350,000 books are available from Amazon, though that number varies between countries. For example, Australian owners have the choice of more than 280,000, but that drops to over 270,000 for Indian buyers.

Most books are sold at lower prices than their physical editions. For example, most titles on the New York Times bestseller list are sold at $US9.99, which is typically between half and one third of the paperback price.

Various US and international newspapers and magazines can also be purchased. Examples include The New York Times ($US13.00 per month) and Time ($US1.49 per month).

Audio titles from Audible.com can be purchased on a PC and then transferred to a Kindle for mobile listening, as can personal documents and various public domain electronic texts.

International Kindle shipments will begin on October 19; pre-orders are now being accepted.

The 9.7in Kindle DX is still only available in the US at this time.