Amazon Kindle in Japan
Amazon.com has announced that they will be releasing an international version of their Kindle e-book reader in 100 countries, including Japan:
The move, announced on Tuesday, gives the world’s largest online retailer the widest global reach among its competitors, including chief rival Sony Corp.
The Kindle will sell for $279 in other countries.
Amazon also announced it would cut prices for its U.S.-only Kindle by 13 percent to $259 from $299, bringing its cost closer to its rivals. The new price is $100 lower than it was a year ago.
Amazon — which regards the Kindle as a pivotal growth driver — said over 200,000 English-language books from a host of publishers as well as over 85 international and U.S. newspapers and magazines would be available on the international device, which begins shipping October 19.“Our vision for Kindle is every book ever printed, in print or out of print, in every language, all available within 60 seconds,” Chief Executive Jeff Bezos told Reuters.
The International Kindle will use 3G Wireless for book downloads. The wireless map on the product page shows that almost all of Japan is covered for 3G access. Other conditions for Japan include:
- Books in Under 60 Seconds: Think of a book and you could be reading it in under a minute
- Free Wireless: Free 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle. No monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots. See Coverage Map.
- Large Selection: Over 280,000 English-language books to choose from; plus U.S. and international newspapers and magazines
- Low Book Prices: New York Times® Best Sellers and New Releases are $11.99, unless marked otherwise. You’ll also find many books for less – over 100,000 titles are priced under $5.99
- Amazon.co.jp customers will need to register on Amazon.com in order to purchase Kindle.
- Your international shipment is subject to customs duties, import taxes and other fees levied by the destination country. We will show you these fees upon checkout.
- Kindle ships with a U.S. power adapter and a micro-USB cable for charging your Kindle via a computer USB port. The U.S. power adapter supports voltages between 100V – 240V.
- You can transfer personal documents to your Kindle via USB for free at anytime. Service fees for transferring personal documents via Whispernet are currently $.99 per megabyte. Learn more
- Wireless download times can vary based on 3G or EDGE/GPRS coverage, signal strength and file size.
- Kindle books, newspapers, and magazine are currently priced and sold in United States dollars
Judging from the requirement that customers have to sign up for Amazon.com to purchase the Kindle, it looks like their target, at least for now, consists of English-speakers. A Nikkei news article mentions that Amazon is thinking about deals with Japanese book publishers, but details have yet to emerge.
As a happy Kindle 2 owner, I welcome this expansion. Amazon’s move will no doubt encourage more publishers to make their books available in digital format, which will make life easier for those of us who hate the mark-ups and the lack of selection one usually encounters when buying English language books in non-English-speaking countries.
Related post: Tips for buying English books in Japan.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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interesting. I’d be interested to see their list of “international magazines.” I, for one, would love to read 「習慣アスキー」 on a Kindle. of course, no color, but still…
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Awesome. I have no plans to buy one, but this slightly increases my chances of getting to play with one if a friend buys it.
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I just object to the prices. If a softcover book costs $12 at home, and 75% of the price goes towards printing and distribution, why does the book cost the same on kindle? Does server space and pipeline really costs $9 per book?
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The kindle is a DRM riddled turd, please don’t try to pass it off as anything else. Amazon can remotely disable your ebooks also.
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When an e-book reader WITHOUT remote control file deletion (for books you’ve already “bought”) by the provider comes out, let me know. Till then, I’ll wait.
How much do you want to bet that “free” wireless coverage in Japan will suddenly become NOT free anymore if enough people start buying these things.
Oh, and they should eventually be giving e-book readers away for free or almost nothing, just as cell phones are/were, in hopes that you keep buying books. Again, I’ll wait for that.
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Our Man loves books, but has to admit downloading any book in 60 seconds appeals. But can he then give it to a mate to read? Or collect first editions? Or sell his old books? Or pass them down to his kids?
Still, Our Man remembers similar arguments why computers would never replace newspapers, and we are almost there.
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While I am not about to use Kindle (grey ‘paper’ really does not appeal) I can think of one massive (literally) advantage to digitalization. I own an entire collection of National Geographic magazines–on four DVDs. If I were to own every single paper one published since 1888 I would need a warehouse to house them all. Paper is an extraordinary waste of space when all we really need is the information on it. Hell, my own apartment is bad enough….
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i dont like it. this will be on my “never waste your money on it” list for the next 5 years.
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James, is it still possible to read your books in low light environment or do you need to turn on a reading light in that case?
I usually read in bed or on flights from Europe to Japan and other far away places. Having to turn on a reading light for me would cancel out the need or even the urge to buy a Kindle.
I now use my mobile phone and mobipocket to read books on.
Would the Kindle be interesting for me?
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Or they could just pirate bay the books like a normal person, and use the newest Sony reader which is cheaper and less restricted in Japan.
Anything that makes you “register” to use it is just one more method of DRM and control the world doesn’t need. 3G would be useful, but there’s plenty of WiFi too which isn’t restricted to a preset list of books and sites.
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Nobody noticed that the map used in this post was enourmously wrong?
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Seriously. Anyone notice Nagoya or Osaka? Hmmmmmm
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At least they are technically correct…
Osaka on that map is actually:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaka,_Gifu
And Nagoya is actually:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagoya,_Saga
Yokohama is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yokohama,_Aomori
I was interested, especially for technical books ’cause they cost an arm and a leg, so I took a look at the Kindle store, and here’s something interesting:
Print List Price: $49.99
Kindle Price: $27.19
You Save: 22.80 (46%)
Cool. But wait… On Amazon.com, print edition:
List Price: $49.99
Our Price: $31.49
So, by buying the Kindle version from Amazon rather than the print version from Amazon, you actually only save $4.30 (okay there’s shipping charges as well, but also the Kindle has to be paid for, so…)
Don’t know, that just rubs me the wrong way…
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Hmm. Seems the books are going to be more expensive for users of the international Kindle also. Maybe it’s back to the Sony reader, after all…
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