Amazon will start shipping a GSM-based wireless version of
itsKindle e-bookto US and international markets on 19
October, and it is taking orders from today.
The online retailer has also cut the price of existing Kindles
in the US by $40 to $259. The wireless version, which will be
compatible with most mobile phone networks, will sell for $279.
Users in more than 100 countries will be able to download a book
wirelessly in less than a minute, said Amazon founder and CEO Jeff
Bezos.
UK readers will be able to download books from the Kindle Store,
subscribe to newspapers and magazines, save and read personal
documents, and read from their own library on Kindle's six inch
electronic ink screen.
The US Kindle
Store had more than 350,000 books, including 104 of 112 New
York Times Bestsellers, for $9.99 or less, he said. It had added
more than 75,000 books in the last five months, and was starting to
sell Lonely Planet guides from today.
Users could buy single copies or subscriptions to more than 50
newspapers, including Financial Times, The Times, The New York
Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, Le
Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and the Shanghai Daily.
Magazines on Kindle included The Economist, Newsweek, Time, The New
Yorker, Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, Forbes, Fortune, PC
Magazine, and The New England Journal of Medicine.