Amazon Hobbles Features For International Kindle 166
Barence writes "Amazon has stripped several key features out of the international edition of the Kindle, PC Pro has discovered. Newspapers and magazines are delivered without any photos, and the web browser has been disabled, presumably because Amazon doesn't want to foot the data bill. There's also a 40% premium on books bought via the Amazon store. 'International customers do pay a higher price for their books than US customers due to higher operating costs outside of the US,' an Amazon spokesperson confessed."
Higher Costs outside the USA? (Score:4, Interesting)
That is Marketing Droid speak for
Lets screw everyone else.
I fail to understand the reasoning for this in places where Amazon already has a huge operation (eg UK)
Ah well, If they screw us up so much then people will find a way to get, sorry pirate or hack the US Editions and then watch Amazon cry fould as the whole thing is a mega flop just like the Zune is outside the US.(just an example)
When will the so called international companies really view the world as one big market and 'do the right thing'.
I certainly won't be buying one of these. I urge others to boycott them until the functionality is restored.
Re:Another troll summary? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Another troll summary? (Score:3, Interesting)
Slow news day, I guess.
Re:A market for middle men? (Score:3, Interesting)
Nothing, as long as you use a web proxy in the US for downloading and don't expect the wireless to work on a different cell network.
Re:Another troll summary? (Score:5, Interesting)
What a moronic and ludicrous world IP law has created.
IP law didn't create the world you're describing, you did.
Re:Another troll summary? (Score:3, Interesting)
You would think that in certain territories they would come to an arrangement with a native provider.
Going with AT&T is strange. T-Mobile, Vodafone, Telefonica, Three all have large international networks and one of these would be a far more logical provider for Europe than AT&T.
Instead they're going to make the product worthless and expensive.
Re:A market for middle men? (Score:3, Interesting)
Put that way, nothing except the fact that it's likely to not be profitable. Given a US price P (always excluding sales tax) and a VAT of 15-25% depending on the EU country (applies to e-books in most of them; must typically be included in the price by law) you have to charge somewhere between 1.15*P and 1.25*P just to break even.
So 10% markup in the list price would be a loss. 20% would be about break-even, if we assume a 20% VAT. A 10% increase in what the seller gets would mean a 32% markup in the list price given that same 20% VAT.
Re:Another troll summary? (Score:1, Interesting)
They are using the wrong carrier. For my GPS trackers I'm using Jasper wireless services and the cost is less than AT&T in the US and the cards work globally.
Re:Another troll summary? (Score:5, Interesting)
Since anybody can edit wikipedia, you could easily stash a URL on some obscure page. This program, running on a computer with a real ISP, would be watching for edits made by you, and would respond to them by retrieving the requested URL, reformatting it, and posting that as a subsequent edit. The wikipedia guys would presumably crack down if it occurred on a wide scale; but a few geek enthusiasts, particularly if they cleaned up the edits used after they were finished, could probably fly under the radar for a good while.
Re:Another troll summary? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Higher Costs outside the USA? (Score:1, Interesting)
When will they view the world as "one big market"?
Probably around the time it actually is...