In the UK, “Amazon is understood to be frantically working on having the Kindle ready for launch before Christmas 2009 and has already secured agreements with book publishers,” says a report from Mobile. “It is also in the process of negotiating with news and magazine publishers.” The report says that the move is part of “a major play for ebooks to protect the business against the likes of Apple and Google disrupting the traditional book market.”

The report also says that Amazon is “in advanced negotiations with a mobile operator for an MVNO [Mobile Virtual Network Operator]” to allow for wireless downloads. Interestingly, the report says Amazon had previously been in MVNO talks with “the likes of Vodafone, Orange and 3 around six months ago, but discussions broke down” — and now Vodaphone is launching “its own version of the Kindle” in Germany, while Orange is preparing its own e-reader for France.

Amazon would not comment on the pending release of the Kindle in the UK, although it did have a comment on mobile operators marketing their own versions of Kindle. The comment was: “Snort.” Or, more precisely, ”one insider” from Amazon told Mobile, “There is a whole ecosystem of publishers that you can’t just walk into. We have been here for 12 years.”