Ben.geek.nz Forums

1. 

   Ben
   Big Kahuna

   Apparently Vodafone NZ is in “deep discussion” with Amazon about carrying the Kindle in New Zealand. The last time someone said “deep discussion” was Telecom talking about bringing the iPhone to their XT network. We all know how well that went.

   *for certain definitions of “Worldwide”.

   Amazon just put out a press release, with the great news that their acclaimed electronic book reader – the Kindle – is now available “around the world”. Wonderful news!

   But wait. If you go to this page, and click on the handy link titled “Click here to see important information specific to your country”, things start to get a little funky. Let’s run through a few countries to check availability:

   • Australia? Yep.
   • France? Oui!
   • Fiji? Io. Bula!
   • Mongolia? Ummmm, yes.
   • Guinea-Bissau? Sim!
   • New Zealand? Yeah nah. Sorry.

   What the heck is going on here? Either there is a serious omission by Amazon, or some nameless publication rights holder has put a spanner in the works. Unfortunately my money is on the latter. Perhaps Brian Edwards has got in someone’s ear?

   Stay tuned while I attempt to get to the bottom of this.

   Update: Here’s a thought: the Kindle requires a 3G data connection, and Amazon likes the data to be free to users. New Zealand carriers are rather expensive when it comes to mobile data. Perhaps Amazon couldn’t reach an agreement with a local carrier?
   Update 2: Ok that’s not it. Fiji gets the Kindle with no mobile partner, requiring a USB connection to a PC to update ebooks. Secondly, Simon Lieschke has quite helpfully scraped the country availability data from Amazon into one long list.

   
   Amazon Kindle Available Worldwide*

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   Posted 11 months ago #
2. 

   Ross
   Inactive

   Posted by unregistered user: Ross

   I hadn’t seen the Brian Edwards article and it seems he’s taken it down. You can see a cached version here http://bit.ly/9xVEP

   Posted 11 months ago #
3. 

   Stu
   Inactive

   Posted by unregistered user: Stu

   My money’s on their PR people just lumping NZ in with Australia because they’re the same country right?

   But seriously that sucks. Fuck you Amazon. I’ve been waiting for a decent eInk system to arrive on our shores for as long as the technology has been around.

   Road trip to Australia anybody?

   Posted 11 months ago #
4. 

   Chainsaw
   Inactive

   Posted by unregistered user: Chainsaw

   Amazon’s weird. They won’t ship camera gear to NZ either, though the stores that use them as their shop front will.

   Posted 11 months ago #
5. 

   Kit
   Inactive

   Posted by unregistered user: Kit

   I want to know what sort of technology disease (or is that copyright disease?) we have in NZ that leads to ommissions like this. As a PS3 owner we’re already disadvantaged with no PlayTV or Vidzone. Now Amazon are jumping on the screw NZ bandwagon. I believe we’ve spotted REAL reason for the NZ brain drain, it’s nothing to do with money at all, it’s the lack of cool gadgets!

   Posted 11 months ago #
6. 

   Luke
   Inactive

   Posted by unregistered user: Luke

   Canada does not get it either, which is quite strange and a huge omission. Wonder why?

   Posted 11 months ago #
7. 

   pando
   Inactive

   Posted by unregistered user: pando

   Amazon is pre-ordering the Kindle 2 International version for $279. The Kindle 2 US version is available new for $259 or refurbished from $219.

   Posted 10 months ago #
8. 

   Stu
   Inactive

   Posted by unregistered user: Stu

   Perhaps it’s just as well we won’t get the Kindle here.

   Posted 10 months ago #
9. 

   Ben
   Big Kahuna

   Yeah I saw that. It’s a bit silly that no one saw it coming I suppose.

   Posted 10 months ago #
10. 

    rob-nz
    Member

    A couple of new contenders to maybe rattle Kindles complacency..

    Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/compare/

    Entourage Edge: http://www.entourageedge.com/entourage-edge.html

    Posted 10 months ago #
11. 

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Posted by unregistered user:

    The B&N Nook looked nice I admit. Although has anybody tried the Foxit eSlick? It's at the same price point but it's sold internationally (they ship to NZ for $29usd), it understands PDFs and doesn't seem encumbered with DRM?

    Posted 10 months ago #
12. 

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Posted by unregistered user:

    Perhaps part of the problem is that publishers and/or ebook retailers have geographic rights restrictions to NZ for most books? Not much point in supplying an ebook reader if the actual ebooks aren't allowed to be sold here.

    It's all a bit stupid really. NZ is a progressive country in a lot of ways. Not with ebooks, apparently.

    Posted 10 months ago #
13. 

    Rae
    Inactive

    Posted by unregistered user: Rae

    If I buy a Kindle while Im in the US can I down load books in NZ or not?

    Posted 10 months ago #
14. 

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Posted by unregistered user:

    Not many; certainly not popular, modern ebooks. Unless you have a credit card with a US billing address.

    Posted 10 months ago #
15. 

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Posted by unregistered user:

    Update: Now available via iTunes App Store is Amazon's Kindle for iPhone app and, magically, it seems that it's possible to purchase ebooks in NZ from Amazon without worry of geographic rights restrictions. Woop!

    Posted 8 months ago #

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