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Amazon delays release of Kindle in U.K.

10.20.08 | 1 Comment

The U.S. has a lot of suckage compared to Europe and the rest of the world when it comes to mobile networks, but at least our market makes licensing relatively simple. Amazon is struggling to work out similar agreements with all the carriers they’d need to ensure the Kindle would work throughout Europe, so they’ve announced that they’re postponing a U.K. release for now.

Brian McBride, the managing director of Amazon in the UK, has told trade publication “The Bookseller” that we won’t see the device that was launched back in November 2007 in the US before the end of 2008.

McBride said the delays are all down to the problem of licensing mobile access across Europe.

“If you need agreement with carriers in the US, there is one carrier”, he said. “In Europe it is a minefield, as there are so many operators. If you buy a Kindle in the UK and want to read it on the beach on holiday, unless we have signed deals in Spain it is not going to work on the beach.”

The Kindle is still an incredibly entertaining device even without online access, but I agree it would lose a lot of utility without the Amazon store availability. On the other hand, you’d probably save a little money from not being able to make those impulse book purchases.

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