The Amazon Kindle 4 (aka Kindle 4th Gen, Kindle Touchless or just plain Kindle) was announced as a sidenote to the colour Kindle Fire and touch-enabled Kindle Touch. But in many ways it was the most significant of the three, because of its extraordinary price.
The UK remains the poor cousin to the US in the world of dedicated ebook readers. While many are on the market, to be a real success they need the vertical integration of being linked with a book seller, both for usability and the subsidy to the initial purchase price.
A stand-alone reader needs to make a profit for the manufacturer from the retail price alone, while a book seller device can make its money from the books and so can afford to be priced cheaply. And Amazon as the biggest book store can subsidise its ereaders the most.
As a result we really only have Amazon's Kindle, missing out on other book seller-tied devices such as the Nook and Kobo.
Worse, we currently only have one of the new generation of Kindles, the others being restricted to the US (presumably for supply reasons). And to add salt to the trans-Atlantic wound, our new Kindle costs £89 compared to $79 (around £50) in the States.
But we do at least have one of the next-gen Amazon Kindles, and it's still very, very cheap. So how does it stack up?
Well, unlike the Kindle Touch and Kindle Fire, the plain Kindle is basically a cut down and repackaged version of last year's Kindle 3 - now renamed the Kindle Keyboard - rather than one with new technologies and features added.
That's not necessarily a bad thing, because the Kindle Keyboard was the best ebook reader on the market in terms of screen, book choice and price.
If you put the price of the US version out of mind, £89 really is cheap as chips for an ebook reader, especially one as accomplished as this.
As well as opening up ereaders to a new market, when the reader is priced this low you're less worried about taking it into environments where you might think twice about using expensive electronics, such as the bathroom or the beach. While not exactly disposable, it's not £500-worth of iPad to wreck either.
Amazon famously sells more books in Kindle ebook format than in print these days, and this price point is only going to accelerate that trend.
Your comments (12) Click to add a new comment
tonii
December 21st 2011
12. The Best eReader :) http://www.kd-ebook.info/
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olafbrows
November 10th 2011
11. I just got one from this website. http://www.spindlekindle.com/shop/shop.php
I got a warranty and a case right when I got it. They have the best prices guaranteed and it is very easy to bundle!
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fazakerley
October 28th 2011
10. You say that there's a Kindle App for Blackberry, but sadly there isn't yet. At least, there is only a beta that's US only and only works on a small range of handsets.
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mikeprytherch
October 25th 2011
9. Does it support PDF Reflow yet ?
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sez1
October 25th 2011
8. I have the old generation, now the "keyboard" Kindle. There seems to be a lot of similar features and I think that it is simpler in many ways, which is good for someone who might be a little technophobic. Are there secret games, etc on this one like the keyboard version? Maybe someone with the new generation can explain (if they can find them)?
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ashane
October 21st 2011
7. The Kindle can do SO MUCH more than this review as well! Its an amazing device...wait until the Kindle Fire cometh...
ashane
http://kindlefiregeek.blogspot.com/
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tentimes
October 18th 2011
6. ** "Convert" in the heading, extra W by mistake ;)
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tentimes
October 18th 2011
5. I bought one a week ago and am extremely happy. I wear glasses and worried about being able to read it, but in actual fact it is easier to read than a real book! (For me, anyway) Until you see it's hard to explain how good this e-ink is.
This new one is smaller, easier to hold when you are lying on your side in bed etc.
For conversion from pdf it's still a bit difficult, but if you look for things like bliss, pdfmasher etc, they allow you to take out the bits that don't convert well (like the contents, which is redundant). They also crop it, after which sending it to [youraddress]@free.kindle.com (with "ConvertW" with a capital C in the subject heading) is the final step to get a readable book. If you are like me and have already paid for pdf books you will want to do this rather than just use the pdf (reading pdf is no good!!!)
So, now I have the pdf thing mastered I don't need to buy my books again, and in future I will buy kindle format.
Other tools you might want to get are mobipocket creator, possibly calibre, and have a look at mobileread.com for lots of other tips.
It's a fantastic bit of kit for the money and I absolutely love it. Far easier than paper books and more readable.
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bradavon
October 18th 2011
4. I hate how American prices don't include sales tax. The price you see in stores is never what you end up paying.
"Surely it should encourage users of ePub-based ereaders to convert?"
It would also allow people to shop elsewhere for books. Amazon follow Apple's thinking in this sense.
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lusky79
October 18th 2011
3. Yeah as the others said, the Kindle is priced without sales Tax, but in The UK Amazon must show the price including VAT.
At currant rates $109 is £69.37 plus 20% VAT that is £83.24
So £89 is rather good and rather close
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simon_m
October 18th 2011
2. The American version is ad-supported, which they haven't been able to do here, hence the price difference. And, as pointed out below, our higher taxation rates.
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dwr
October 18th 2011
1. Regarding price, the US version of this Kindle available for $79 features "special offers" advertising and does not include sales tax (which, in New York, is just under 9%). This subsidises the price, but is not available in the UK.
The US equivalent price to the version available in the UK is $109 plus tax. Our tax is included in the £89, which works out around $140.
We're paying a little bit more, but a lot of the real difference is sales tax (with VAT at 20%) when you compare like with like, and you can't really blame Amazon for that.
DWR
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