Amazon Kindle comes to UK

Amazon has announced that it is launching the Amazon Kindle in the UK and around the world as we reported it would last week.

"We have millions of customers in countries all over the world who read English-language books", said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. "Kindle enables these customers to think of a book and download it wirelessly in less than 60 seconds".

The new 3G enabled Kindle International edition will sport a 6-inch screen and come in at just over a third of an inch thin (0.36 inches) and weigh just over 10 ounces according to Amazon. It will come with 2GB of memory allowing up to 1500 books to be stored on the internal drive

Users will be able to access over 250,000 books to download over the air via the Kindle Store including UK newspapers such as The Times and The Telegraph.

Kindle with U.S. & International Wireless edition will cost $279 and will be available for shipment to customers in over 100 countries around the world on 19 October, although currently users will have to purchase the Kindle from the US store and import it into the UK. 

"In the future, we plan to introduce a UK-centric Kindle experience, enabling you to purchase Kindle and Kindle books in sterling from our Amazon.co.uk site", said Bezos in a letter to Amazon.co.uk customers published on the UK site.

The decision to do so means that legally, UK customers will have to pay import tax on the Kindle as it is over the £145 price threshold bringing the price after current exchange rates to around £200. 

Additionally, it is not yet sure whether UK customers will have to pay a wireless roaming fee of $1.99 per book as stated in the small print on the product page on Amazon.com. It says:

"When travelling abroad, you can download books wirelessly from the Kindle Store or your Archived Items for a fee of $1.99".

Amazon has also announced that it will be dropping the price of its US only Kindle model to $259.

The news adds to the growing ebook market, that has seen plenty of activity in the last couple of weeks from company's such as iRex, Sony with it's Sony Reader and Cool-er.

We will keep you posted.

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