Jeff Bezos, romantic lighting, Kindle

While America is deliriously celebrating the birth of Kindle 2, in Europe and the rest of the world there’s some disgruntlement over the fact that they haven’t even been able to buy Kindle 1, notes a report in the International Herald Tribune by Eric Pfanner. He says “analysts had expected the device to be introduced in Britain in time for the year-end holidays, [but] that did not occur.” Why is that? Amazon, in their forthcoming way, aren’t talking, but theories abound: “one reason for the delay was the difficulty of reaching agreements with mobile operators to enable wireless downloading of books,” says Pfanner, theorizing that “mobile operators in Europe, which are eager to generate new revenue from sales of ‘content’ like books, may be holding out for a larger share of the proceeds of book sales than Amazon wants to give them.” He says there may also be resistance from publishers who can’t afford to work with the low prices Amazon demands.

A report in PC Magazine by Brian Heater notes that there could be another problem: Selling the Kindle in another country “it would also mean striking all manner of new deals with the publishers who provide content for the device. As anyone who has ever worked in licensing can tell you, the process can be a nightmare.”

Or, the main obstacle could be a simple — but large — mechanical problem: “Kindle 2 uses a Sprint manufactured modem, which is only compatible with the U.S. network. Delivering the device overseas would mean replacing this fundamental piece of hardware”

Meanwhile, while Amazon dawdles, many other reports — including the IHT story above — note the competition has snuck up behind them and is doing quite well: Sony Readers are already for sale in Great Britain, France, and Germany, and smartphones — particularly the iPhone — have become popular as ebook readers. In PC World, for example, of all places, Rick Broida outlines “Five Reasons the iPhone Trumps the Kindle,” including: It’s not a “single-purpose device … it fits in my pocket … it has a backlit screen,” and “it can dowload books (and more) on the fly.”