AMAZON.COM is introducing Kindle, its wireless electronic reader, in more than 100 countries, including China and most of Europe, intensifying a battle for the burgeoning digital book market.
The move gives the world's largest online retailer the widest global reach among its competitors, including chief rival Sony.
The Kindle will sell for $279 (€190) outside the US. Amazon also announced it would cut prices for its US-only Kindle by 13 per cent 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 more than 200,000 English-language books from a host of publishers as well as over 85 international and US newspapers and magazines would be available on the international device, which begins shipping on October 19th.
"Our vision for Kindle is every book ever printed, in print or out of print, in every language, all available within 60 seconds," said chief executive Jeff Bezos. "That's a multidecade vision," said Mr Bezos, visiting a Kindle office in the Silicon Valley city of Cupertino. Analysts have pondered the likelihood of Amazon developing the Kindle into a tablet-like device for tasks like e-mailing, texting and surfing the web, thus competing with devices reportedly being developed by Apple.
But Mr Bezos reiterated his intention to optimize the reading experience, saying the company rejects compromise, whether it be a touchscreen that affects legibility or computer displays that eat up too much power.
At the same time, Amazon is working on making Kindle digital books available on more devices. Besides the Kindle, those books can now be accessed on the iPhone or iPod Touch. "We want you to read your Kindle books on laptops and smartphones, anything with an installed base," Mr Bezos said. He said he was not "in principle" against making the works available on rival devices like Sony's, but was focused on platforms with "large installed bases". - (Reuters)
