PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
The Amazon Kindle Touch is coming to Europe some six months after the US launch of the touch-enabled e-book reader, while the firm remained tight lipped about the Android-powered colour screen Kindle Fire.
The Kindle Touch will be available for delivery from the 27th of April, costing £109 for the WiFi-only version and £169 for the WiFi/3G version.
Amazon launched the first Kindle e-reader in the UK a year and a half ago and since then the Kindle 3 added a faster display, slimmed down the weight and added a very basic qwerty keyboard. The current version of the Kindle has done away with the keyboard.
The Kindle Touch is slightly heavier but still weighs in at just 213gr, light enough to comfortably hold in one hand – something less feasible with full colour touch screen tablets. The screen of the Kindle Touch can, as you’d expect, be used to turn pages and also can be used to take notes.
The Kindle Touch uses an eInk screen which is easily read in bright sunlight and consumes no power until it’s time to change the page. These qualities allow the Kindle Touch to offer a battery life of up to two months on a single charge, Amazon claim.
Despite the launch of the Kindle Touch, there’s no word on when or even if the Amazon Kindle Fire will come to the European market. The Kindle Fire has been a particularly hot seller in the US given that the device is largely a full-featured 7-inch Android priced aggressively at US$199.
The decision to launch the loss-leading Fire in Europe will be predicated on Amazon’s view of the demand for apps, movies and TV shows through Amazon’s store..
In announcing the availability of the Kindle Touch, Amazon drew attention to the fact that the world’s largest etailer offers over a million books, magazines, newspapers and blogs – having added over 350,000 in the last six months.
"Our vision is to have every book ever written, in any language, and all available in under 60 seconds," said Amazon chief Jeff Bezos.
