Kindle Intl – $189

Kindle 2 is now a run-away success and consistently the bestseller in any category at Amazon.com. You can buy brand new Kindle 2 now for only $189.00. This Kindle upgrade has been selling really hot since its release in 2009. Amazon did a good job of correcting the errors they made with the original model, and the Kindle 2 is now an extremely capable e-book reader, well received in the US and in the international markets.

Competition from Sony, Google, Plastic Logic and other players is driving Amazon to cut prices to stay competitive. Amazon can now cut the price because larger production and sales volume resulted in cost reduction and they are passing some of the savings to the customers. Since debuting, the Kindle has controlled e-reader mindshare in the United States, but has faced serious competition from senior e-reader maker Sony, which not only makes the lowest priced product, but also the most feature-packed product as well. Sony’s Daily Edition Reader has 3G wireless from AT&T, a touchscreen interface, and the ability to borrow e-books from participating libraries.

But the Kindle may not be exactly the thing some potential buyers need. As someone who has spent a considerable amount of time in airports in the last 2 years will tell you, the Kindle is very popular among travelers. Unfortunately, the device’s Sprint-friendly CDMA connectivity is all but useless overseas. Users who have taken their Kindle to another country and want to obtain new content have no wireless options. To address this, Amazon today has unveiled the “US and International Wireless” Kindle for the same price of $189.00, which can be used on the 3G networks in more than 100 countries. Talking of the best deal!

And travelers appear to be the main group targeted in this device launch, rather than actual international markets, since Amazon’s Kindle Store still deals almost exclusively in English language literature. There are a handful of products in other languages, though, and Amazon pointed out today that a number of international periodicals are available for subscription, such as La Stampa (Italian), El Pais and El Universal (Spanish), O Globo (Portuguese), Le Monde (French), and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (German). However, there are major limitations preventing the device from use in other languages.

Amazon Kindle has millions of potential customers in countries all over the world who read English-language books. International Kindle version will enable these customers to think of a book and download it wirelessly in less than 60 seconds. International Kindle customers will have access to about 220,000 book titles at its Kindle Store. Publishers involved with the store include Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, Lonely Planet, Harlequin, Penguin, Bloomsbury, and Hachette, and many more. Amazon already simplified and standardized its Kindle 2 pricing scheme all to $189, making it more in line with Sony’s Reader Pocket Edition and other competitors. The only difference is the superior advantage Amazon has in its content and availability of ebooks. With these developments, Amazon has now positioned itself for the boom in e-reader sales that Forrester Research expects in the U.S. over the next few years. In a recent report by Forrester Research – it raised its 2010 forecast for worldwide e-reader sales to 6 million units from its previous estimated 3 million sales in 2009. Forrester Research also expects Amazon Kindle to command about 60 percent of the e-reader market. With 6 million e-book readers expected to be sold in 2010 alone, Forrester also expects the market to grow to $2.5 billion by 2013. They are predicting that the first manufacturer to build an under-$150 e-book reader that focuses solely on reading, not on fancy frills and features, will win.

During the 2009 holiday season, e Readers was one category that was a break away success, as many experts have predicted. Lower prices, more content, more effective distribution, and lots of media exposure are contributing to rapid adoption of e Reader devices since 2008.