Filed under: Quillblog, Amazon, E-Books, Kindle, Stephen King
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Kindle 2 not coming to Canada
This week, Amazon unveiled Kindle 2, but the thinner, sleeker e-reader is still not available in Canada. That means Canadians will have to wait to read Stephen King’s lastest novella, which is a Kindle-only exclusive. The National Post reports:
The company still has a number of issues to solve before the device can be sold [in Canada], including Canadian digital publishing rights and electronic distribution negotiations.
“The book publishing industry in Canada is not up to speed in terms of what is available in the number of titles [online],” [Amazon.ca spokesperson Margaret] Antkowski said. “Secondly, because it has WiFi capabilities, there has to be an agreement with the providers – the Bells of the world, the Rogers of the world. That’s one of the things that’s standing in the way, and they’re working on that.”
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Good riddance. There are better ebook readers anyways. I love eBooks, and I’m glad that Amazon’s position as a major entity is calling attention to eBooks. However, Amazon’s proprietary format is a HUGE problem. I don’t want to be locked into buying eBooks from only one source, and I want to be able to read my eBooks wherever I am – including on my desktop at work. I used my sister’s Kindle for a few weeks last year, and was unimpressed. There are great alternatives out there – I currently use the Cybook, which is lighter, more attractive, cheaper, and I can buy eBooks from a variety of sources (more about the Cybook). The Kindle, while frequently touted as a “huge leap forward”, really exemplifies why so many people are hesitant to try eBooks.
“The book publishing industry in Canada is not up to speed in terms of what is available in the number of titles [online],” [Amazon.ca spokesperson Margaret] Antkowski said.
What’s that slew of bizspeak supposed to mean? Amazon, which prevents Canadian publishers from offering e-books for their Kindle reader, is disappointed with the number of Canadian e-books available?
Typical Canadian thinking, keeping out an American product and keeping us in the technological dark ages, That’s what keep Tivo out of Canada so long. Canada’s once independent publishing industry is now sinking to the depths of the rest of Canadian mass media by doing what ever they can to put their product in front of Canadian consumers that may want to choose something else. This is not a good sign.
“Typical Canadian thinking, keeping out an American product and keeping us in the technological dark ages”
Amazon’s keeping the product out, not Canadian thinking. Amazon could allow Canadians to buy it and download books via USB cable; they could allow Canadian publishers to publish books for the Kindle. They don’t. Blame Amazon.
Ted Rogers is the 2nd richest man in Canada and he wants to stay that way. So unless he makes money from the kindle or any other wireless product it won’t make it to Canadian shelves.
is someone going to tell Shawn?
Shawn…I’ll take a wild guess here but I’m willing to bet that Ted Rogers does not care one bit about the Kindle right now…
“Secondly, because it has WiFi capabilities, there has to be an agreement with the providers – the Bells of the world, the Rogers of the world.”
I don’t get it. Why do Canadian ISP’s have to agree to allow the Kindle 2 to have Wi-Fi capabilities? Canadian ISP’s don’t stop laptops with wireless cards, the iPod touch, or any other device with Wi-Fi capabilities from being sold in Canada.
This doesn’t make any sense and is probably total B.S.
Luke, the reason is because Kindle 2 comes with FREE wifi. So a package deal has to be worked out with an ISP to provide that, as Sprint has done in the US.
It’s not wifi – it’s a wireless cellular connection, known as ‘whispernet’, essentially because it is data-only and uses a relatively slow connection. A Canadian Kindle would have to include an EVDO (Telus or Bell) or GSM (Rogers) modem inside it to allow wireless purchasing of e-books. In the US, Amazon has negotiated a low fee for this cellular connection, and pays it on behalf of Kindle users to allow them to buy e-books at any time, wherever they are. As well as digital rights, one of the Canadian cellphone corps would have to agree to whatever terms Amazon would want for this connection.
You mean to tell me if I got my American cousin to ship me a Kindle, I couldn’t read it in Canada? Or that I couldn’t download eBooks on my PC and then port them over to the Kindle? That’s really absurd. I guess it’s Sony for me.
Shawn…. Ted Rogers is dead…as in “Weekend At Bernie’s” dead. Unless he’s controlling the Rogers empire from his grave, I bet he doesn’t give a hoot about the Kindle. Not anymore anyway.
Just one simple question. If I live in Canada, buy a Kindle in US, can i buy books in Kindle format online from my laptop, download, and then transfer via usb to my laptop ? By the way I live in Canada.
It seems to buy anything Kindle you need of course buy from Amazon.com. For a Kindle account it seems you need and American Credit card (with an American) mailing address. That is the kicker. Many of us have US credit cards but Canadian Mailing addresses. They seem to have pretty tight control on this stuff. Is there some part of “free trade” that I am missing here. I suspect things like this drive the dinosaurs at the CRTC nuts.
I get PLENTY of books via my SONY READER. We waited two years to buy the Kindle. Amazon is NOT interested in bringing it to Canada. Frankly I am laughing at them, they’re losing out on a lot of money. Myself & several of my friends spent our money on Sony readers rather than wait for Kindle and listen to the excuses any longer.. and as was said earlier..
Amazon’s keeping the product out, not Canadian thinking. Amazon could allow Canadians to buy it and download books via USB cable; they could allow Canadian publishers to publish books for the Kindle. They don’t. Blame Amazon.
Do yourselves a favour and go to http://www.sonystyle.ca, click on eBook readers from the left side menu and purchase one of them. I have had mine for several months now and am very happy with the product. If something happened to it today I would buy another right away.
Although the DRM is a bit of a problem, the real reason is the high cost of wireless access in Canada. Amazon could not get a reasonable rate for the online access. The protectionism of the Canadian government of the wireless companies has lead to completely unreasonable costs.
While Amazon could offer a different product, usb access, we can not blame them for wanting to offer the product as defined. The ease of buying books is one of their prime selling features.
Cell and wireless data usage in Canada is lowest in the industrialized world. This is simply one example of protectionist behaviour limiting our choices.
Kindle or Kindle DX won’t be worth a damn until it’s in color. I want something I can read digital comics on, and black and white just doesn’t cut it.
The Sony e-Book is the way to go, just like Mark said. 2 different styles & some nice accessories too.
The Sony eBook isn’t much of a solution. Yeah, it’s an attractive, well-designed product, and it works. But the Sony eBook Store is massively overpriced. Books are priced at the same level as the hardcover list price (Amazon’s kindle edition prices are much lower) and there isn’t a SINGLE Canadian book on the Sony store. I spent 3 hours one day not long ago trying to find someone at Sony to speak with about this. No luck. I called at least a dozen Sony offices all over the continent, left messages with customer service … nada. Very typical for Sony. “Buy it and osculate our posteriors, suckers” is their policy. I’d be happy to buy a Kindle. You can have my Sony.
Granted, the cost of the Sony reader is high, but what else do you expect for a high demand, low supply product that has no readily availiable competition in Canada? The only comparable product in stores might be sub-notebooks, but that stretches thhe comparision a littlr far. Get Amazon to release a Canadian Kindle or get Cybooks into stores… then you will see Sony’s prices fall.
Actually, a palm pilot or ipaq will do fine as an alternative. They both have software ports of Mobipocket and the pricing is more reasonable than what I’ve seen listed on Amazon. (I imagine that the Sony store is as overpriced as the rest of it’s products.)
That being said, the whole ebook field has a serious weakness in the lack of titles being offered. For example, try finding “Just after Dark” on Mobipocket or ebookmall.com
All other issues aside, the Canadian Publishing Industry is a disjointed, non-collaborative joke. Even if all the other issues were worked out and Amazon brought the device to Canada the Canadian Publishers would still be talking about and not agreeing on digital publishing rights until the yea 10,000 AD. Total Canadian titles that would be available on the Kindle… 10 if your lucky. Get real. The Kindle would be great for consumers that want to use it in Canada, like myself, who are interested in a variety of content, but if they had to rely on the “Unified Canadian Book Industry” to make it a success, they’d be crapping bricks while they loose their shirts.
It happened with the IPhone before. History repeats itself.
Canada blows.