Amazon Kindle spreads its global appeal via UK store

by Steven Mostyn - Aug 6 2010, 07:20

Extending the appeal of its already popular Kindle electronic book reader, online retailer Amazon has officially flung open the virtual doors of a Kindle Store specifically aimed at meeting the needs of digital bookworms based in the UK.

“The Kindle Store offers the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read at low prices,” trumpeted Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle Content, regarding the new Kindle outlet.

Boasting 400,000 titles, the lowest prices of any ebookstore in the UK, and carrying 84 of the 100 Nielsen UK Bestsellers, Amazon’s latest virtual store will play host to leading authors such as Stieg Larsson, Dan Brown, Terry Pratchett, Ian Rankin, Sophie Kinsella, Stephenie Meyer and Ken Follett.

The store will also carry Kindle exclusives such as contemporary classics including Salman Rushdie’s ‘Midnight Children’, Vladimir Nabokov’s ‘Lolita’, and Norman Mailer’s ‘The Naked and the Dead’. Plus, like the US Kindle Store, UK users will have access to more than 170 top international newspapers and magazines, and also a million free-to-download pubic domain books.

“The all-new Kindle will begin shipping at the end of the month, but customers can start reading books from the massive UK Kindle Store today by downloading any of our free Kindle apps for the most popular devices,” added Grandinetti in an official statement.

Specifically, eager readers can peruse and purchase from the new Kindle Store and enjoy their content ahead of time via the likes of PCs, compatible Android devices, and also Apple’s iPad tablet computer, iPhone smartphone, iPod Touch and Mac systems.

In terms of comparative pricing alongside Amazon’s traditional print publications, the Kindle Store certainly seems competitive. For example, Stieg Larsson’s ‘The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest’ can be purchased and downloaded for 2.70 GBP, while the standard paperback version currently costs 3.86 GBP. Similarly, the digital version of Stephenie Meyer’s ‘Eclipse’ costs 3.41 GBP, as opposed to the print edition’s slightly more expensive 3.86 GBP.

Amazon’s unveiling of the UK Kindle Store comes after it last week launched an all-out assault on rival eBook devices such as the Barnes & Noble Nook and Sony Reader by introducing a redesigned WiFi-only Kindle that sells for just $139 USD in the United States and 109 GBP in the UK.

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