Amazon will finally launch its Kindle e-Book reader in the UK, possibly as early as this month.
The leading publishing trade magazine, The Bookseller, has reported that the much-anticipated device will hit British shelves as early as October, with an announcement expected as early as next week.
An Amazon.com source said: “The key things they needed to tie up have been tied up. The rumours I’ve heard are all saying next week.”
Other sources said that Amazon were “gathering a head of steam for launch” this month.
Amazon kindle Ebook reader
The move has long been expected, as Amazon have said they wanted to launch the e-book reader internationally, although the company has never committed to specific launch dates. Industry experts said the delay was due to the Kindles Whispernet wireless download system. The system, that allows users to download e-books directly onto their Kindle, has proven to be a technical problem in Europe. The issue of the machine incurring international roaming charges was also thought to be an issue.
However, it is believed that Qualcomm, the wireless development company that provides the Whispernet system, have now worked out a solution to allow the system to work in the UK.
The Kindle has proved a hit in the US. Amazon expects to sell a million of the devices in 2009. According to the Association of American Publishers, eBook sales in July were up 213 per cent compared with July last year.
Kindle owners are able to download content such as e-books from the Amazon website, as well as loading content from their own computers onto the device.
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Sales of digital e-books have outstripped real books for the first time, according to Amazon.
The firm said that it has sold 143 e-books for its Kindle e-reader for every 100 hardcover books over the past three months.
And that rate has accelerated with Amazon selling 180 e-books for every 100 hardcovers in the past month.
Amazon’s Kindle bookstore now offers more than 630,000 books as well as over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books.
Today, Amazon.com announced that sales of its Kindle device had also accelerated over the past three months, a change that the firm described as a ‘tipping point’.
Amazon just announced a 2.5 software update for its Kindle and Kindle DX readers.
At the moment, it’s rolling out the update to a “limited group” of Kindle users with a general release coming at the end of May.
Enhancements include the ability to organize books and documents into “collections,” pan and zoom within PDFs, Kindle password protection, two additional fonts, and just what you’ve always wanted: the ability to “share book passages with friends on Facebook and Twitter.”
A colour e-reader that supports video and potentially web browsing has been shown off by Dutch researchers.
The prototype uses screen technology – based on century-old science – that its makers say is up to four times more energy efficient than LCD screens.
Once established in the e-reader market, Dutch firm Liquavista hope to see its displays integrated into other devices in the future.
But analysts question whether consumers will be enticed by the greener gadgets.
Liquavista said it expects the first e-readers using the “electrowetting” technology to be available by the middle of 2011 and the technology to then become more widespread.
“You certainly could see this technology in your smartphone, in your mobile phone, in your web tablet, in your PC, in your notebook,” said Guy Demuynck, head of the firm.
“But eventually you could see it in your home as your television screen in your living room,” he added.
The Amazon Kindle has become the most gifted item in the company’s history, with Kindle books outselling physical books for the first time ever on Christmas Day.
Amazon.com announced the important milestone on Saturday but didn’t release any specific figures. They did, though, reveal that on its peak business day – December 14 – customers ordered over 9.5 million items worldwide; a record-breaking 110 items per second.
Kindle, billed as the gadget that would do for books what the Ipod did for music, has a unique wireless operating system has seen it dominate the e-book market, taking a 65 per cent of the market share.
When the online retailer Amazon launched the Kindle ebook reader in 2007, it was viewed by many as a an “iPod moment” for the digital publishing industry.
Amazon’s huge customer base and vast reach was seen as crucial to driving forward this emerging technology and persuading consumers to lay aside their paperbacks and pick up an electronic device instead.
Celebrity endorsements from the likes of Oprah Winfrey helped generate a huge amount of interest in both the Kindle itself – with web searches for the device up 479 per cent the day after she mentioned it on her show – and ebooks in general.
According to the Association of American Publishers, US consumers spent $63 million on ebooks in the first half of this year alone.
British consumers will have a chance to see what the fuss is about when the Kindle goes on sale in the UK on Oct 19. Several other ebook readers – such as the Sony Reader, iRex iLiad and Cybook – have been available in the UK for months, but the Kindle will be the first device that enables bibliophiles to download books on the go, using the mobile phone network. Amazon hopes the ability to purchase books on the move will appeal to shoppers.
Ebook readers are expected to be one of the biggest-selling gifts this Christmas. In the United States, around 900,000 ebook readers will be sold in the run-up to the festive period, according to Forrester Research, with Amazon’s devices taking a 60 per cent share of the market, followed by Sony’s Reader range, which will account for 35 per cent of sales.
In the UK, which industry analysts say is about two years behind the US in terms of the maturity and growth of the ebook market, the Autumn arrival of the Kindle is certain to spark interest in the platform. Publishing houses are throwing their weight behind the format and are trying to release digital versions of new books at the same time as physical copies, although the availability of many titles is patchy, and some digital versions cost more than printed copies.
A recent survey by YouGov found that while consumers love their ebook readers, they are disappointed by the lack of titles. YouGov predicts that the “next wave” of ebook users will be younger, female and less technically savvy than the early adopters, and will demand a wider range of titles, particularly across the non-fiction and biography genres.
“The publishing industry is experiencing explosive growth in digital book sales in the US, and we hope to stimulate digital buying elsewhere by making our content widely available on new devices,” said John Makinson, chief executive of publishers Penguin.
Around 200,000 books will be available for the Kindle at launch, and users will also be able to download copies of popular newspapers and magazines, such as The Daily Telegraph, New York Times and Washington Post, to the device for a fee. At the moment British consumers will have to buy both the Kindle and any ebooks from Amazon’s US store, paying in dollars, but Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and chief executive, promises a more “UK-centric Kindle experience” in the future.
But could it be a case of too little, too late for Amazon? In the two years it’s taken for the Kindle to make its way across the Atlantic, British consumers have found other ways of reading their favourite books on the go. Mobile phones, in particular, are proving popular, with software available for both the Apple iPhone and devices running the Google Android operating system that makes it easy for people to buy and download books to read on their handset.
And several companies, including Microsoft and Apple, are rumoured to be working on touch-screen tablet-style computers, which would be ideally suited to reading on the go. Although they lack the electronic-ink screens used by ebook readers to provide a natural reading experience, the convenience, portability and additional features offered by a compact tablet could easily outmuscle the likes of Amazon’s Kindle.
While it remains to be seen whether the Kindle, and other ebook readers, can really lure consumers away from traditional paperbacks, the ability to carry thousands of books on a single device, and download the latest novel while commuting to work, certainly marks a new chapter in what is sure to be a long-running story.