Update – Non-U.S. user from KindleKorner notices that the Gift Certificate workaround traditionally used by international customers no longer works.
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For those of you waiting for a Kindle that can travel with you outside of the U.S., your time has come. I’m happy for our overseas friends and kindlers in the U.S. that struggle with how to download their books outside of the U.S. I only have two complaints on this so far – no coverage for US Military servicemen in Iraq and Canada got the shaft (again!). Check the International Coverage guides and country specific information
Other than that, there are a few caveats that you’ll need to remember and updates to look for in the future.
BOTTOM LINE -Even though this Kindle gets wireless outside of the U.S., if you live in the U.S. save yourself some money and get the U.S. only version.
The specifics on the 3 Kindle models can be seen here
General -
- U.S. only customers get a price drop down to $259, the international version is $279.00. I’m glad that I got my Kindle long enough ago that I’m not sore about the $359.00 that I originally paid.
- Kindlers now select their home country. This is managed on the ‘Manage Your Kindle’ page. This lets Amazon know which books are to be made available to you for purchase. Publishing rights management mean some books available in some countries and not in others. I can’t wait to see how that will be managed and wonder if the recent broken searches and funky book lists on the Amazon website were the result of their trying to get all of that organized. I also wonder if your home country can be changed. What if I move to England–bleh, it makes my head spin–that’s also a wait and see. Neither point made in a negative tone, but more like a car crash waiting to happen tone.
- The web browser is not available for some countries. I’m still looking for a list of these and will update when this info is published.
- Although the books offered for the Kindle Int’l are in English, there are User Guides and License agreements in a variety of languages.
- Australian Kindlers need to purchase from a specific page. They get a Kindle minus the U.S. power adapter, but with the cable for charging.
- Because wireless download is not available everywhere there is a new option when sampling/purchasing Kindle editions. You can download to your pc and upload later.
Books, Subscriptions and Personal Documents -
- It looks like the bestsellers are $11.99 compared to the U.S. $9.99
- Blogs are NOT available to Non-U.S. Customers and some content from newspapers/magazines may be missing. Not sure what here, nor why.
- U.S. Customers will incur a hefty $1.99 fee for each book downloaded from Archived Items or individual newspapers/magazine downloads and $4.99 per week for subscription content (this looks like a bulk thing, not $4.99 per subscription) downloaded abroad.
- The personal document charge increases to $.99 when overseas.
- The fine print here is that if you have a subscription attached to your Kindle, you’d better keep the wireless OFF. Otherwise you’ll face that charge everytime your latest newspaper/magazine is uploaded to your device.
All, in all, a good move for Amazon ahead of the Sony wireless eReader release. A few missing details has me wondering whether this Kindle release was pushed a bit. I’m sure the complaints will start coming fast and furious, but I’m pretty happy with the overall job that Amazon is doing with the Kindle (still waiting for folders though!). I also hope that non-English books will become available for any Kindle version. I don’t see a true international Kindle version with non-English menus and keyboard anytime soon, but there’s always hope.
Considering the clamor for Kindles overseas, I’d pre-order now cause I’m betting they’ll sell out for the holiday season.
