At one point in Jeff Bezos’ presentation he mentioned WhisperSync, a system for syncing all of your Kindles. This means if you’re reading a book on one of your Kindles and pick up another Kindle registered to your same account, it lets you start reading where you left off on the first Kindle. It’s kind of a smart bookmark so you never have to lose your place if, like many folks who are interested in this thing at all, you own a K1 and K2. But Jeff said something very special. He said this works with other Kindle devices or other “mobile devices.”
One of the biggest complaints is that you have to own a Kindle to read Kindle ebooks. But what are these “mobile devices” of which he speaks? Laptops, with desktop reading software? iPhones? WinMo devices? Zunes? The mind boggles. UPDATE – We have confirmation it’s coming to “cellphones” but not which ones.
In a way, this is the next logical move. You grab the early adopters with sexy hardware and then grab the rest of the world with software solutions. It mimics, in a way, the growth of MP3 sales – iTunes and iPod made it sexy to own music again while Amazon’s un-DRMed MP3 store – and others, obviously – stripped away the barriers to entry for millions of others.
This also opens the Kindle store to folks outside of the country. After all, Bezos said “Our vision is every book, ever printed, in any language, all available in less than 60 seconds.” Sure sounds like a business plan to me and why do you need every language if you’re not expanding your reach?
I have a line in on this so we’ll see what Amazon has to say.
Where does this post mention international versions of Kindle?
You know, although this is the fifth Kindle post on Techcrunch in a day, this is the news that got my attention – very cool.
If the K2 was available in India, I would preorder it now. I would buy it from the US if someone told me that it would work on my wifi connection at home. The problem is that its hardwired to the 3G network in the US.
So, even if it could work on the wifi at home, I wouldn’t be able to access Wikis and blogs on it on the move. That is a bummer. But, for that I can use my iPhone :)
You can purchase content on the Amazon website, then just download it into the Kindle via a USB connection. The Kindle has no Wifi, but it’s a very simple process regardless.
Which means that I do have a chance at buying this beauty. Thanks.
The Kindle shows up as a drive when connected to a computer via USB. You can just drag and drop content purchased from the Amazon site.
BTW, Kindle uses the Sprint network, so it’s not even 3G, it’s still CDMA.
Tom, Sprint’s EV-DO network is 3G, using CDMA2000.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CDMA2000
This is exciting news indeed. The potential applications are endless, not to mention advertising possibilities. Now, if Bill Gates decides to partner we’re talking mega deals.
This should have been thought earlier… reaching out on devices (like mobile phones) that have already proliferated market makes lot of sense.
Mobile devices could include.. iphones, mobile phones, psps, and so on… why not allow limited preview and ask users to buy for more?
still wait for the first version to arrive on the continent ;-(
I want Kindle.
Bye bye iPod.
Very exciting – I’m glad I have the Kindle for extended reading sessions, but this will be great for sneaking a chapter or two at lunch. It would be unthinkable for this to not include the iPhone and Android.
Both generations seem to turn the page at about the same rate as an actual book made from paper and glue. Is that not the desired effect?
I want kindle transmitting directly into my brain. And, it should use my eyeballs as touchscreen, but in such a way that I am not constantly poking myself in the eye. Also, my poop shouldn’t stink.
Get over it, I want the TC mobile device, yesterday.
I don’t see them selling Kindle books (at least not yet) to non-Kindle owners — only enabling sync for people with Kindles who also want to read those books on their phones. A little elaboration here: http://www.readerville.com/index.php/blog/view/the-359-iphone-kindle-app/
But the idea of them selling Kindle books to people in other countries isn’t really even possible. Rights to publish books are negotiated on geographical lines, so until that changes, Amazon can only sell the books within those same geographic confines. It’s one of the things that will have to change with the whole ebook revolution, but it’s between publishers and authors — there’s only so much Amazon could ever do about that. (Apart from generating original content and negotiating rights to sell it globally. But still, that’s a ways off and going forward; wouldn’t apply to existing books.)
Geographic rights don’t seem to be a major problem with e-books. At least for now. The only distributors that seem to care about them are Kindle and Mobipocket.
See for yourself: choose any restricted e-book from Mobipocket’s store and see if it’s available on Fictionwise or in other stores where there are no such restrictions.
When I order English physical books from Amazon to my country they don’t care about geographic rights either.
BIg move. Supporting multiple devices could open up the DRM can of worms again, though. Unless Amazon is totally against that.
I’ll tell you what I’d like – buy a hard copy of a book and get the kindle version (or iPhone/netbook/whatever) for free, or even an additional 3-4 bucks.
Buying a hard cover book kind of defeats the purpose. Since we’ve owned Kindle the last 9 months, I have yet to buy a hard cover book.
@Tom – I see your point, but what if I don’t own a Kindle, yet I’d like to read a chapter of a book on my iPhone every now and then when I forgot to bring it along? I guess that was my thinking. Or maybe I just fall into the in-between niche that likes some new gadgets, but is resistant to others.
I fly all the time and would buy a Kindle(despite the horrible white plastic) is it had a backlight. I know that kills the battery but saves turning on the annoying nightlight on long flights or waking up my wife when reading in bed.
very cool
The new Kindle looks cool and maybe great for reading, but I wouldn’t want to read over 2 pages of a book on my Iphone, talk about eye strain
Isn’t that part of aiding in their sell of Kindle’s? :)
So I should assume that kindle books will be an app that works internationally? or is still country limited like audible. Thanks publishers!
The US seriously needs to catch up with places like Japan where the mobile phone novel has really taken off. There is a HUGE market for young people, both as content creators and consumers.
It sounds like in 3-5 years we could be there if Amazon evolves this stuff agressively…
It’s the content that counts at the end … not the device ….http://tinyurl.com/c5tj2h
That’s what many manufacturers said about the iPhone.
i cant believe anyone hasnt come up with a decent ebook. in 5 years we are going to look at the kindle and it will feel very old.
i suppose partly is the technology, but part of it is their business bundling that will make amazon loose the fight if anyone with 2 neurons comes along.
I would buy a Kindle NOW if I could buy books in Brazil.
A color screen would be nice. The image of the book’s cover is in black and white.
Can I download books in the .pdf format to read in the kindle?