2009-03-04
Kindle for iPhone… in the US
This morning’s big tech news seems to be the launch of the Kindle app for the iPhone and iPod touch, as also covered by John Gruber. Naturally, neither story covers the fact that, like the Kindle hardware, the app is only available in the United States.
Now, unlike the Freakonomics blog, I can entirely understand the hardware existing only the US. EVDO, the technology behind what Amazon call “Whispernet”, the always-on data connection, is part of the CDMA stack of mobile phone protocols, and it’s unavailable outside North America (and Japan). While GSM has layers with equivalent bandwidth, they apparently also cost more, not just for bandwidth, but perhaps as importantly, in battery consumption on the device.
However, the fact that a piece of software isn’t available raises additional questions. Perhaps Amazon don’t want to offer the ebook infrastructure internationally. Perhaps, as commenters in the US note, there are issues with distribution rights. (Most book rights are apparently sold in a package for the US, and another for the rest of the English-speaking world.) Still, it’s vexing, and I hope that, even if the Kindle hardware fails to surface outside the US, the Kindle app can be introduced as a beachhead.
