Amazon.com on Tuesday announced it is releasing an international version of the Kindle and trimming prices of the electronic book readers.
Kindle models designed to synch with telecom networks in countries around the world are priced at US$279 and the prices of basic Kindles tailored only for use in the US were cut US$40 to US$259.
“For the first time ever, Kindle is available for sale outside the US,” Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said as he provided a glimpse of the international model in Cupertino, California.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“Now, Kindle will work in a hundred countries. With Kindle you can be in France and get an English-language book within 60 seconds,” he said.
International versions of the e-readers can be ordered online through Amazon but shipping won’t start until Oct. 19.
“Our vision for Kindle is every book ever printed, in print or out of print, in every language available,” Bezos said.
For now, downloads are only available in English, although the giant online retailer has teams working on digitizing books in other languages.
Kindle has become the top selling item at Amazon since its US launch two years ago. It is also the most “gifted and wished for” product on Amazon’s virtual shelves, Bezos said.
For every 100 ink-and-paper books Amazon sells, 48 digital editions are bought for reading on Kindles. Amazon does not reveal sales figures for the Kindle, so the paper-versus-digital figures help shed light on e-reader popularity.
Bezos told of a continuing flood of e-mail messages from Kindle converts, book lovers who went from shunning to embracing digital works.
“What people realize is they can enter the author’s world and have the device disappear the way a book does,” Bezos said, adding that Kindle’s advantages include one-handed reading, its light weight and built-in dictionaries.
“There really is a renaissance in reading in that regard. There is no turning back,” he said.
Amazon plans next year to release an international version of a sleek new Kindle DX model that hit the US market about five months ago. Kindle DX e-readers are still available only in the US and will remain priced at US$489 each.
Cost reductions resulting from high-volume manufacturing — not the increasingly competitive electronic book reader market — has led to the price cuts, Bezos said.
Rival companies are boosting their e-reader business as well. Sony said in August it will do away with proprietary software on its electronic Sony Reader and convert to an industry standard “to make its e-book store compatible with multiple devices.”
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