Amazon Bringing WiFi/MVNO Kindle To UK Will Hurt Sony Reader Sales

Kindle-DX

According to Mobile Today, “Amazon is understood to be frantically working on having the Kindle ready for launch before Christmas 2009 and has already secured agreements with a carrier and book publishers. It is also in the process of negotiating with news and magazine publishers.” What’s more stunning is the fact that this version of the Kindle will include Wifi. However, it is not clear which of the biggest carriers will carry the MVNO connection for the device, e.g. Vodafone, Orange and 3. Apparently Amazon was in talks with said carriers months ago but no announcements were made at the time and many had speculated that the discussions fizzled out; some have pointed towards T-Mobile as being a possible partner. Some have commented that Amazon should just release the thing with a sim-card slot that allows “pay as you go” access.

prs-700

The Sony Reader has enjoyed an aura of exclusivity in the UK and some of Europe of being the only major electronic book device. The Reader is popular, but I have seen chatter on twitter from several UK consumers that groan about defaulting to it because the Kindle isn’t available there. It’s no secret that the Kindle is faring better in the USA than the Sony Reader, so we are really left to wonder what kind of impact this will have on UK (and eventually European) sales of the Reader when the Kindle arrives this holiday. Fortunately, Sony has gone on record and stated the next version of the Sony Reader will have connectivity options. It would be very interesting to see a wireless Sony Reader vs. a wireless Amazon Kindle in the UK, or even USA. If Amazon is bringing a WiFi Kindle to the UK, then you can be sure it will arrive in the USA.

Via engadget.

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15
Jul 2009
POSTED BY Christopher MacManus
POSTED IN

Hardware, Reader

DISCUSSION 7 Comments
  • http://twitter.com/ShanieAIBO Shanie

    This will badly effect the sales and support for Sony's Reader if Amazon bring the Kindle over here, every customer I talk to knows and asks about the Kindle and when I explain about the copyright problems and the fact Kindle is US-only, they then buy Sony's Reader. I fear that without the support like the Kindle has to back up the Reader before the Kindle gets here… Its bye bye Reader. :

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Richard-Hughes/1455457891 Richard Hughes

    Well, I have both the PRS-700 (touch screen) and the PRS-505 Reader's and they are really a delight to use and I do use them almost every day on the commute to work – not to mention the fact they look so much better than the Kindle aesthetically. For me a wireless model really wouldn't make a huge amount of difference. I read other rumors on MobileRead that perhaps the next Sony model will be a larger format (screen size) but not neccessarily with wireless.

  • Niki

    If the Kindle was open to books bought from other retailers than Amazon there's no doubt in my mind what I would choose. But being limited to buying e-books from Amazon or not at all makes this reader a lot less attractive… That's the major selling point for the Sony Reader – you can buy books from different sellers (in fact, you _have_ to if you don't happen to live in the US and can use the Sony bookstore). If Sony would open their bookstore to all international customers and make it and the transfer process/library more versatile and user friendly (like Amazon are good at) they would stand a better chance at competing with the Kindle. Oh, and _please_ let them upgrade the 505 to handle zooming for PDFs better. Difficult to get hold of e-books and unwieldy PDFs – no wonder people are wary of the Reader.

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    For me a wireless model really wouldn't make a huge amount of difference. I read other rumors on MobileRead that perhaps the next Sony model will be a larger format (screen size) but not neccessarily with wireless.