Amazon is launching two third generation Kindle Fire HDX model in Australia. They can access content from a newly opened Kindle Australian appstore. Source: TheAustralian
AMAZON has launched a refreshed Kindle Fire tablet range in Australia and a local eBook store that features Australian authors.
The Seattle-based company, which dominates the Android tablet space in the US, today starts selling a new version of its 7-inch Kindle Fire HD, along with two new third-generation Kindle Fire HDXs, the 7-inch and 8.9-inch Kindle HDX, which were launched in the US by chief executive Jeff Bezos in September.
The 7-inch Kindle Fire will cost from $ 189 at Dick Smith and Big W. The 7-inch Kindle Fire HDX will sell from $ 329 for a 16 Gigabyte version later this month, while the 8.9-inch HDX will cost from $ 479 from December 10.
Both HDX models will run Amazon’s operating system Fire OS 3.0 “Mojito” – named after a Cuban white rum-based cocktail. Mojito is a derivative of Google’s Android OS and standard Android apps can run on it.
The most important development for the Fire is Amazon’s launch today of an Australian Appstore that will offer local content. Much of the US content available globally before such as Amazon’s supply of movies could not be accessed from Australia.
Whether the Australian Appstore offers anything like the rich music and video content available on US Kindle Fire models will likely determine its success here. So far Amazon has been spruiking apps such as QuickFlix, iHeartRadio, TuneIn Radio and Spotify. They already exist on other platforms.
Nevertheless there is a variety of games, entertainment and social apps, personal organisation apps, and access to hundreds of thousands of book titles. Amazon says “100,000 s” of apps are available.
The Kindle Fire HDX models feature a fast Snapdragon 800 quad-core 2.2 Gigahertz processor, high resolution displays of more than 320 pixels per inch, dual stereo speakers with Dolby Digital Plus audio, an 8 megapixel back-facing camera and, says Amazon, 11 hours of battery life and up to 17 hours for reading. The 8.9-inch HDX also has a front-facing video conferencing camera.
The 7-inch Fire HD has a 1280×800 HD display, and a more modest dual-core 1.5 GHz processor.
Amazon’s other big news is the launch today of its Australian Kindle store with more than 2 million eBooks, including more than 26,000 free English-language titles.
Most of the Australian content probably is already available in the US global store, nevertheless it will be better highlighted and promoted in the local store.
Works include At the Close of Play by Ricky Ponting, Eyrie by Tim Winton, Bittersweet by Colleen McCullough and Doctor Sleep by Stephen King, and offerings by authors such as Germaine Greer, Karly Lane and James Duigan. There’s also Australian classics from Text Publishing and titles from Indigenous publishing house Magabala books.
Amazon says Australian customers can access more than 700,000 books priced at $ 3.99 or less and more than 1.4 million priced at $ 9.99 or less . Under Australian law, consumers no doubt will pay GST.
Those wanting goods from Amazon other than eBooks will still have to buy them from the US store. That includes paper editions.
Amazon says it will not geo-block Australian consumers, who can continue to buy eBooks from the US. Kindle users can transfer their account to the Australian store.
You can’t operate more than one consumer account on the same Kindle device, so you’ll need to buy consistently from either the Australian eBook store or the US one unless you have multiple Kindle devices – ie it will be hard to choose a different store on a book-by-book basis in case of major price differences for an individual book.
Independent authors and publishers can decide to publish to all Amazon bookstores via the Australian portal using Kindle Direct Publishing , earn a 70 per cent royalty publishing in 175 countries, and be paid electronically in Australian dollars.
• Read more about Amazon’s push into Australia in the Personal Oz section of The Australian tomorrow.
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