Comments on: Kindle US Vs Kindle International

By: Jasper Janssen

Jasper Janssen — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 10:53:32 +0000

It’s not Amazon that’s forcing (all) of these disadvantages. If you want to be a customer to a company that doesn’t operate in your country (and given your name you probably aren’t in the UK or Germany or France), you’re going to have to put up with restrictions. A lot of that is due to the fact that rights for even english-language books are divided up per country — if I buy a book in .nl, it’s often the .nl licensee that should be getting paid, not the .uk or .us licensee.

Kindle is marketed to US and UK customers, and others around the world are getting the option to buy it, but it is very much in its infancy. This isn’t the third generation Kindle, internationally — it’s the first year of low-profile, test operation of the international Kindle store.

You’re a guinea pig, if you don’t like it, buy a Sony or an Oio.

By: switch11

switch11 — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 17:51:37 +0000

Meindert, I think you're overdramatizing it. Prices in the UK show that Amazon intends to reduce prices everywhere. It's not going to happen overnight. Turning 'we just started and are figuring out stuff' into 'Amazon is treating people outside the US like third rank customers' is rather unfair.

By: Meindert

Meindert — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 09:24:43 +0000

Gel,
I completely agree with your observations and feelings about feeling like a third rank customer.. I wonder why Amazon is acting so shortsighted. If A wants to become a wordlwide player in e-books and e-readers, one would think that they are mrketing ther stuff in such a way?
Making separate classes of customers suggests that the market is the US and customers outside the US are sponsoring the broader and cheaper supply of books for the US customers…
I think that it will change overtime, with the competition of Apple and Google. Too bad, that Amazon is not taking the lead in the worldwide e-book market, with equal opportunities for all customers.
I run a Kindle usergroup in the Netherlands, and we would like to make liaisons with other like groups. One of the primary goals would be to start a serious conversation with Amamzon marketing.
Please email me for contact!

By: switch11

switch11 — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 19:13:02 +0000

Congratulations on doing something illegal and ‘playing the system’.

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 07:55:48 +0000

The above information is mainly wrong.
1. I am in Hong Kong but if I switch my country to USA I can download books more cheaply and with no additional download charges.
2. The ‘Whispernet’ coverage is basically irrelevant. My Kindle connects wherever I am, so I can download books, receive subscriptions and surf the web when, eg I am in China or Singapore (where the Kindle is not shippable).
3. I can subscribe to newspapers as a US user and get the lower rate and then switch to the Hong Kong setting to receive my subscriptions at the lower rate AND without the roaming ‘international delivery’ fee.
So, it’s all about how you play the system. Even Amazon hasn’t figured it all out yet.

By: Che

Che — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 07:53:14 +0000

Tim, you are right – Amazon says the Kindle does not work in Singapore. Indeed it won’t send it to me here but I received it by a freight forwarder. It doesn’t matter that Amazon does not have agreement with Singtel or whoever. The point is that it works and I can access the US bookstore and subscriptions. It is great.

By: Gel

Gel — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 22:35:23 +0000

I think that all potential customers should know that there is a marked difference between the US book store offerings and International.

The page for the store changes dramatically when you select US as your home country, compared to an international location.

The US page is much better. You get a list of all the top New York Times Bestsellers to choose from, and if you go to specific categories the listings include far more recent and popular titles.

International pages do not show the best seller’s lists, and the titles are either much older or obscure.

Amazon will also email you asking that you prove your US Residency if you switch your home country to the United States, but then proceed to download US-Only books while OUTSIDE the United States.

In the digital age, Region locked books, DVDs, Games and CDs have NO place. I am already paying More for my Kindle, and then paying even more for each book. On top of that the books I can purchase are restricted: that is a ridiculous situation.

It makes me feel like a third class customer who has to pay more to get the same things that the others get. Americans get all the advantages, and all the latest content, and the rest of us have to pay extra for the privilege of accessing less.

I hope that customers speak out and force a change to these authoritarian and draconian distribution policies that have no place in the 21st century. I also hope that Blogs and mainstream websites start asking questions and opening dialog and discussion as to why this is the case, and demanding that this system be changed.

By: Don

Don — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:32:51 +0000

Excellent research! It’s good to know they are doing the “right thing” by truly charging by byte size (per day) rather than purely “per document”.

By: Bert

Bert — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 20:35:16 +0000

Thanks for the good article. Just contacted amazon support about the cost of the personal document service. If you send 10 PDF documents of 100kb during one day, you will be charged only the total size once (1 mb or usd 0.99). If you send 10 PDFs of 100 kb on 10 different days, you will pay 10 times the minimum of 1 mb, so usd 9.91 in total.

This means it is better to combine your uploads through whispernet.

Just my small tip.

By: switch11

switch11 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 21:31:56 +0000

the charge should be $2 for all ebooks – I think you can get customer service to look into it if a book you like is $5 more for your country.