Kindle Germany has arrived – it ships from the US, is available for preorder for $279 (plus custom duties and postage) and will release on October 19, 2009.
German business weekly Wirtschaftswoche is reporting (subscription wall so can’t find the article) that Kindle Germany is not going to happen anytime soon as Mr. Bezos has been unable to reach a distribution deal with T-Mobile and Vodafone (supposedly the two main wireless companies in Germany).
Update: Munsey already broke this.
Kindle Germany is not happening because of wireless fees?
Supposedly. Though there seem to be two main reasons -
- Amazon not being able to negotiate a Kindle Whispernet arrangement in Germany, as this german news site reports (courtesy Google Translate) -
The online retailer Amazon waived a media report says the time being to be, “Kindle” reader in Germany on the market. Amazon-Chef Jeff Bezos könne sich nicht mit den Mobilfunkbetreibern auf einen Vertrag einigen. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos could not interfere with the mobile operators agree to a contract.
Das berichtete die «Wirtschaftswoche» unter Berufung auf einen Amazon-Manager. It reported the “Wirtschaftswoche” relying on an Amazon-manager.
- The second factor is that publishers in Germany are refusing to lower prices for ebooks and that retail book prices in Germany are fixed by law. This ‘Amazon Kindle to Skip Germany‘ article from EarthTimes has some details. This means even if a Kindle Germany were worked out Amazon would have a hard time getting kindle edition prices to a price-point like $9.99.
If you can speak German, perhaps you can peruse the Kindle Germany articles here and let us know additional details.
What does this mean for Kindle in the UK and rest of Europe?
Not that much. It does indicate that Amazon is negotiating throughout Europe and that Germany didn’t work out. Hopefully the other European countries are working out.
Losing Germany is a big loss as its a top 5 technology market (as far as my understanding goes) and supposedly a bigger market than the UK. My feeling though is that the UK would be more important for the Kindle.
Filed under: availability, kindle | Tagged: kindle germany
