Kindle DX goes global, Alex gets a price

Jake Widman
Friday, 08 January 2010 03:04

Your IT - Mobility

The larger version of Amazon's Kindle e-reader is now available for order from more than a hundred countries around the world. And a price and on-sale date has been announced for the dual-screen competitor Alex.

Featuring a 9.7-inch display, the Kindle DX is the larger version of Amazon's e-book reader. It was introduced last May.

In October, Amazon started selling the Kindle with Global Wireless, an international version of the original 6-inch Kindle. Now the company has followed that up with the Kindle DX with Global Wireless, available for shipment to countries from the Aland Islands to Zimbabwe, including Australia. (Kindle wireless service is not available in all the countries you can buy a DX in, however -- in some, content will have to be downloaded to a PC and transferred to the DX.)

Amazon is taking preorders for the Kindle DX with Global Wireless. The device is slated to start shipping on January 19 and costs US$489.

In other e-reader news, Spring Design announced that its dual-screen Android-based Alex e-reader will ship on February 22 and cost US$399359.

That's $150100 more than the other dual-screen e-reader out there, Barnes & Noble's Nook. Unlike the Nook, however, the Alex's secondary color screen serves as a full-function Web browser.

The Alex will be for sale through the Spring Design website. A spokesperson for the company said that "other relationships will be announced" in the next few days that will offer other Alex purchase options.

It was reported yesterday that Spring Design had established a partnership with Google to make the million-volume Google Books library available on the Alex.

Update: Spring Design announced an "agreement in principle" with bookstore giant Borders by which the Alex will feature the upcoming Borders e-book store. The Borders store will be based on technology from Kobo, a e-book retailer with a stated commitment to open standards in e-book format and to support for any device.