For quite some time now there has been a good deal of conjecture as to when, exactly, Amazon might release its Kindle reader worldwide. The original Kindle was launched in November 2007 with the Kindle 2 and the large screen Kindle DX going on sale in February and June of 2009 respectively.
A year and a half and two hardware updates later there seems to be no sign of an imminent global launch on the horizon. US sales of the reader are strong – demand often outstrips supply and the device is out of stock periodically. Kindle book sales are also strong (making up 35% of total sales when there is a Kindle alternative on offer alongside the traditional paper versions) and the market for Kindle accessories is increasing day by day.
However, as good as current sales numbers are, it seems improbable that a company like Amazon would be content with dominating the North American market whilst ignoring the profit on offer in the global arena. The fact that the Kindle’s arch rival, (for the moment at least) the Sony PRS reader, is available worldwide and is capitalising upon the opportunity to establish brand loyalty in countries where the Kindle is unavailable must be a matter of some concern for Amazon.
Part of the problem would appear to be the type of connection to the Amazon store. In the US, Amazon provide a fee free 3G download service – called “Whispernet” and provided by Sprint. It’s an attractive choice for consumers who feel less committed – albeit the cost of this service is reflected in the purchase price of the hardware, the reader itself.
Recent discussions between Amazon and European telecoms providers – T-Mobile and Vodafone – came to a halt with Amazon suggesting that the service provider’s demands were “unreasonable”.
Bearing in mind that Sony have recently joined forces with Google to make the search engine giant’s huge collection of public domain electronic books available free to Sony PRS users, and also bearing in mind that Apple will be releasing a tablet based notebook (perfect for reading ebooks) – it does seem reasonable to ask how much longer Amazon can afford to hesitate before entering the global marketplace with its Kindle ebook reader.
On the other hand, it’s probably worth remembering that the Kindle was a fairly late edition to the ebook reader marketplace – the devices have been around since 1999 in a variety of formats. It doesn’t appear to have done Amazon any great harm to date and they may be confident that the time will be right when they decide and not before.
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