четвер, 21 квітня 2011 р.

Kindle 3G in Germany: pay more and get less

Today Amazon.de has opened Kindle Store in Germany. Previously to order Kindle one would have to order it from Amazon.com and wait for delivery from the US. Sounds good, but let's have a closer look. New Kindle 3G on Amazon.de costs exactly the same price at on Amazon.com, but in EUROS. So using Google we get:

(189 Euros) - (189 U.S. dollars) = 59.3970376 Euros

or

(189 Euros) - (189 U.S. dollars) = 86.6187 U.S. dollars

Note that Kindle 3G from Amazon.de has English keyboard and English menu items, so there is no German localization whatsoever. The question is why the hell does it cost 60 Euros more? You may think the price is higher because mobile Internet in Germany is more expensive, but in the description they specifically say that Kindle 3G allows to use 3G only to visit Wikipedia and Kindle store, while American version allows you to browse any web-site over 3G. Therefore you get no free 3G Internet, no localization and for a higher price. And of course you can't purchase it from Amazon.com anymore. Bravo Amazon!