Oct

7

Kindle, now in Australia and everywhere else

October 7, 2009 | 3 Comments | Joshua Gans

I didn’t see this coming but Amazon.com’s Kindle has gone international in a big way. You can now order a Kindle that will work wirelessly in Australia. The price is US$279. No idea who the wireless provider is but I am guessing not Telstra. And it appears you pay the US book prices. Parallel import laws may now be obsolete. The good news is that you can now read Parentonomics (at least the US version) on the Kindle for only $10.


Comments

3 Responses to “Kindle, now in Australia and everywhere else”

  1. Kwanghui Lim on October 8th, 2009 4:14 pm

    Hurrah. Found some useful info at http://blogkindle.com/2009/10/international-release-of-kindle-2/ with a good coverage map. Seems you have to pay for import duty on the kindle device, plus possibly some data download fees per item, apparently since the data is distributed via AT&T’s roaming partner.
    Worryingly not all books are available everywhere.
    And to add to confusion, there are now going to be 2 different versions of the kindle sold in the US, one that is US-only and another that can roam internationally.

  2. kme on October 9th, 2009 12:43 pm

    ..or you could just buy one of the several other ebook readers that have been available to Australians for ages (BeBook, CyBook, iLiad…).  You have to download the books via your computer, but that doesn’t seem to have been a problem for music players.

  3. David Brien on October 13th, 2009 2:42 pm

    I wouldn’t mind some clarity on soem of the  other issues that seem to have arisen during the week.
    1. you don’t actually purchase the book just a license to read the text on your Kindle.
    2. Amazon is able to remove or disable downloaded text on your kindle when it suits Amazon.
    I for one would like to know that what I am viewing is mine to do with as I please andnot to encounter outside interference.