Wednesday October 14
 
10:11
 
Amazon comes clean

Don’t say my blog isn’t effective. After writing yesterday about Amazon’s lack of clarity on Kindle pricing and contacting Engadget, Amazon today has updated its country specific information.

Japan now says:

Low Book Prices: New York Times® Best Sellers and New Releases are $11.99, unless marked otherwise. You’ll also find many books for less – over 100,000 titles are priced under $5.99

UK says:

Low Book Prices: New York Times® Best Sellers and New Releases are $11.99 to $13.99 (prices include VAT), unless marked otherwise. You’ll also find many books for less – over 70,000 titles are priced under $5.99

Korea: Kindle is unavailable.

So in Japan we pay $11.99 for a wireless download and US customers travelling overseas pay $11.98 for a wireless download. Fair?

Yes and No. US customers can download for $9.99 using their PC and transferring by USB, but international customers can’t. And what about the UK where the price is up to $13.99?

Oh, and while I’m at it – international customers can buy a Kindle and download books, but we can’t use the Kindle for iPhone App? And if that is made available, what price will the books be – there’s no additional overhead, so no justification for higher prices.

No wonder people download from P2P when publishers and device manufacturers can’t sort themselves out.