Portable reader only available from US site, and lacking some features.
Amazon has announced that it will begin selling its Kindle e-book reader outside the US from 19th October, allowing customers in more than 100 countries to order the device.
However, there are strings attached. The Kindle with U.S. & International Wireless (as it's known) can only be bought from the main Amazon.com website, rather than Amazon's local sites.
That means that buying one from the UK will cost $279 for the device, but a further $20.98 in shipping and handling, plus an import fees deposit of $45.
The new Kindle will still allow 3G over-the-air downloads of e-books, newspapers and magazines, although Amazon hasn't struck individual deals with operators in those 100+ countries.
Instead, AT&T will provide the 3G network. However, UK users won't be able to read blogs on the device or use the Kindle's web browser, while it seems they'll be paying for their e-books and publications in US dollars.
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"In the future, we plan to introduce a UK-centric Kindle experience, enabling you to purchase Kindle and Kindle books in sterling from our Amazon.co.uk site," says a message on the UK site, which also promises "many more books from UK publishers available in the coming weeks and months".
More than 250,000 books will be available at launch, as well as newspapers including The Times, Telegraph and Daily Mail.
