Amazon's international Kindle surprises owners with $20 refund, limited web browsing
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Oct 22nd 2009 4:21AM
posted Oct 22nd 2009 4:21AM
By "strong customer demand" we assume that Amazon means "we're trying to stay competitive with the $259 Barnes and Noble Nook," but that's just a hunch. A hands-on at the Gadget Lab also reveals the inclusion of web browsing thought to have been disabled. For the most part it is disabled but Amazon does let you browse to the English version of Wikipedia and nowhere else. The hands-on also notes "dead slow" 3G performance and Amazon's decision to ship the international Kindle with a US power plug regardless of destination. Weird.Good news! Due to strong customer demand for our newest Kindle with U.S. and international wireless, we are consolidating our family of 6" Kindles. As part of this consolidation, we are lowering the price of the Kindle you just purchased from $279 down to $259. You don't need to do anything to get the lower price--we are automatically issuing you a $20 refund. This refund should be processed in the next few days and will appear as a credit on your next billing statement.
[Thanks, Simon]
'By "strong customer demand" we assume that Amazon means "we're trying to stay competitive with the $259 Barnes and Noble Nook,"'
Exactly. Gotta love competition.
The Nook is not available internationally unfortunately.
I'm surprised they didn't drop them down to $199 after the nook announcement.
The Kindle DX should now be $299 also.
You make money off e-books, not the equipment.
Haven't they looked at the game console business model yet?
Amazon should really be worried (at least in the e-reader world).
Drastic times calls for drastic measures.
have you looked at the game console business model yet? because it has nothing to do with losing money on the console and making it up with games.
Both microsoft and nintendo make a profit off sales of the console, Nintendo has a higher gross margin but thats because its costs are lower.
The playstation 3 is the only console selling at a loss, and that pos sure as fuck doesnt count as the entire game console industry.
Slow down, Light Speed.
Both Microsoft and Sony LOST money on each console sold when their systems came out. Maybe now they are making money (at least Microsoft is) since the hardware and manufacturing are costing much less, but they didn't in the beginning.
Nintendo I think did make a profit from the start (but only about $6 per console) and that's because their innards weren't the latest and greatest tech of the time.
It's the software and accessories that make them real profit, not the hardware.
The reason Nintendo makes a profit from day one is because Nintendo is a video game company. Their bottom line can't take a loss for any amount of time on the console.
On the other hand Microsoft are much much more then video game companies. Them bottom lines can easily take the short term hit since all the other components of their company make up for the loss, and then some.
Both business models work, but neither would work for the other company. Again Nintendo couldn't afford to lose money in the short term. At the same time Microsoft couldn't afford to not get their product strongly into the market ASAP.
Of course now that Microsoft does have a strong foot hold in the market their continue with the same strategy because it simply works for them.
An eBook costs $10, a game costs $60.
A book often takes >10 hours to read through (at least). A game nowadays takes about 6 hours or less to play through.
An eBook's accessories are limited to cases and power adapters. Game consoles have controllers, remotes, wireless adapters, wheels, chatpads, etc. etc.
i.e., this isn't a fair comparison.
@wickedphoenix:
I understand about accessories, but to say that an average book takes 10 hours to read and an average game takes 6 hours to play is ridiculous. It takes some people days to read a book or it could take a couple hours. Some people take more than 30 hours to complete a game or longer if it's an online multiplayer.
As far as cost goes ... it costs a lot more to make a videogame than it does to publish a book (of course, that all depends on the maker of the game and the author of the book), so that's why they charge more. It can cost hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars to make a game, plus a lot more marketing goes into a game. Compare videogame TV ads to book TV ads. Writing a book is free (or cost of a computer/typewriter), authors get paid royalties (10-15%) unless their names are King or Rowling. So, those are the things you shouldn't compare.
What it comes down to ... e-books cost next to nothing to sell. It doesn't have to go through printing or shipping. Even if Amazon sells their Kindle for $199, they still would be making a profit on it. It all depends on how much they have to pay their internet provider for their service. It's not like they need the same as a normal phone:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/04/22/isuppli-359-kindle-2-costs-185-to-build-whispernet-says-shhh/
They should rename it to the Amazon Cranny. Nook vs Cranny
Amazon Swindle vs. Barnes and Noble Crook
When companies compete, consumers win
Except when DRM crushes our souls...
have you looked at the game console business model yet? because it
has nothing to do with losing money on the console and making it up
with games.
Both microsoft and nintendo make a profit off sales of the console,
Nintendo has a higher gross margin but thats because its costs are
lower.
The playstation 3 is the only console selling at a loss, and that pos
sure doesnt count as the entire game console industry.
Nope, still getting the nook. I love Amazon; it's my favorite online store.
I've be rooting for Kindle to fail ever since the 1984 thing and I'm only glad to help it along by getting the Barnes and Noble. If I didn't hate Sony so much I would have gotten theirs. Glad I waited.
i want the amazon Kranny
i hear the sky is blue.
i hear your mom's panties are lavender
I heard you like Mudkips.
In the UK it is being sold through the Amazon.co.uk site, and without a UK mains plus it is not "Fit for Purpose". I’m sure that the UK authorities will be having something to say about that. I think that will apply to the whole of Europe. I’m sure that Amazon won’t want to take on the EC, look at what it cost Microsoft. Although I may be mistaken.
you can sell any device with any plug or adapter as long as you tell the customer. many american just can't be bothered to adapt products to europe--unfortunately Amazon is one of those. better to get it out instead of simply adding a bag of european plugs. they should learn from Motorola, RIM and others who simply send you a bag with all of the plugs. it's a lot easier than having to manage different inventories with differnt plug types
Note that, at least for me in the UK, Wikipedia browsing does indeed work but images appear not to load.
(Haven't had the email yet, but I'm hopeful.)
I stand corrected; they didn't work yesterday, but images do work today. Huzzah.
'By "strong customer demand" we assume that Amazon means "we're trying to stay competitive with the $259 Barnes and Noble Nook,"'
The US only page states:
"A Newer Kindle is Now Available
Due to strong customer demand for the newest Kindle, we are consolidating our family of 6" Kindles. The new Kindle has 3G wireless that works in the United States and also globally in over 100 countries. We will continue to fully support Whispernet for all U.S.-only Kindles. You can buy used and refurbished versions of the U.S.-only Kindle on this page."
The US only edition of the Kindle has been removed from the menu to buy, and is only being sold by 3rd parties now. Did they sell out completely and now are only offering the international edition? I'm thinking so. This would probably be the main reason for the drop in price, not to just compete with the nook.
By eliminating the US only Kindle, customers are now forced to be within AT&T's coverage area to receive Whispernet instead of Sprint. To me, that is a HUGE deal.
Yea, and because of this I will now never buy one. AT&T coverage where I live SUCKS!
Actually, the Kindle international has options to change providers: http://blogkindle.com/2009/10/international-kindle-2-first-impressions/
And so it begins.
Now logically, there is no way in hell I would buy the Kindle over the Nook when they are the same price. There really is just no compelling reason other then I like Amazon more. (But an ebook is an ebook generally speaking)
Personally, after looking, comparing for the last 24....I really would only consider the Kindle if it was around $150 or less. Realistically, the Nook offers much more right out of the gate.
But whats the point? you can't buy any decent or top selling books if your outside the US
piracy?
i wonder if the nook took them by surprise. It odd the revised Kindle was only to add International feature and nook came out with a storm.
It's worth noting that the non-international version of the Kindle 2 is now selling for $219. So it seems they've lowered the prices of both editions.
http://bit.ly/4gS6qt
No, they canceled the CDMA version entirely. Selling for $219 is refurbished ones from Amazon's "WarehouseDeals".
I thought the web browser still functioned in the US on the International version, it was just turned off when being used outside the US. Is that wrong?
That was the main reason I was planning on sticking with a Kindle when I upgrade my Kindle 1 later this year.
I don't get it...why do people think the Nook is all that? It doesn't have a browser, and the touchscreen lcd is more or less a gimmick. I suppose it reads epub and pdf, but unlike the sony readers, it doesn't do library borrowing. It doesn't have text-to-speech like the kindle (youtube it, it sounds actually really good). The whole 'lending' thing is useless since it's a one-time-per-book deal. Book selection across all the ereaders is pretty much the same, and honestly, gadget cravers probably read more blogs than books.
somebody please enlighten me
Yeah, there's a lot of hype over the Nook. There are two differences that I think may be significant: bigger catalog of ebooks (B&N is advertising more than 1 million, Amazon says it has 360 thousand) and native PDF support.
However, these may not be as significant though: it makes no sense for a publisher to seel an ebook only through B&N if it can sell the same ebook, with very little effort, through other vendors like Amazon, so it is quite possible that after a time the ebook catalogs of both should be about the same size. About the native PDF support, I don't know how really useful it can be in a small screen, as you can change text size. The Kindle DX is very good for PDF reading, you can read papers and technical stuff quite well in it, but it has a larger screen. Only after trying the nook for some time I'd be able to say if it's good for that or not.
The rest is clearly less significant or even gimmicks, like the touch screen. A full touch screen like some of the newest Sony readers is a good thing in terms of interface, instead of using the Kindle 5-way; however, many different reviewers of these Sony devices say that the touchscreen add reflex and decrease readability of the screen. I wouldn't sacrifice readability for this.
But we'll see. Competition is good, and if the nook becomes an important player this could be an interesting time for ebooks.
Ok, I just found out that you probably won't be able to zoom in on PDFs:
http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60569
If this is true and you can't zoom, coupled with the small 6" screen, it makes PDF reading almost useless on the nook.
So all that remains in favor of the nook is the bigger catalog, IF Amazon doesn't catch up some time later, which I suspect it will.