Amazon Lowers Price on #1 Bestseller Kindle to $259 and Introduces New Addition to the Kindle Family of Wireless Reading Devices-Kindle with U.S. & International Wireless
#1 bestseller Kindle now $259, Kindle with U.S. & International Wireless
now available for pre-order at $279 and ships Oct. 19
SEATTLE—October 7, 2009—Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that it
is lowering the price of its #1 bestseller Kindle to $259, down from $299. Also
today, Amazon.com introduced a new addition to its family of portable reading
devices—Kindle with U.S. & International Wireless. Kindle with U.S. &
International Wireless now enables readers to wirelessly download content in
over 100 countries and territories. Readers can pre-order Kindle with U.S. &
International Wireless starting today for $279 at www.amazon.com/kindle and it
ships October 19.
“Kindle is the most wished for, the most gifted, and the #1 bestselling product
across the millions of items we sell on Amazon, and we’re excited to be able to
lower the price,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com Founder and CEO. “We’re also
excited to announce a new addition to the Kindle family—Kindle with global
wireless. At home or abroad in over 100 countries, you can think of a book and
download it wirelessly in less than 60 seconds.”
Kindle wirelessly downloads books, newspapers, magazines, blogs, and personal
documents to a crisp, high-resolution 6-inch electronic ink display that looks
and reads like real paper. Kindle utilizes the same 3G wireless technology as
advanced cell phones, so you never need to hunt for a Wi-Fi hotspot or sync with
a PC. Readers can wirelessly shop the Kindle Store, download books in less than
60 seconds, automatically receive newspaper and magazine subscriptions, receive
personal documents, and read from their library—now in over 100 countries and
territories.
“Kindle has revolutionized the way we purchase and read books, by making it
mobile, easy and intuitive,” said Randall Stephenson, chairman and chief
executive officer of AT&T. “We are excited to work with Amazon to help readers
access books even faster and from significantly more places than ever before,
including more than 100 countries and territories around the world through
AT&T’s global wireless coverage.”
The U.S. Kindle Store (www.amazon.com/kindlestore) now has more than 350,000
books, including New Releases and 104 of 112 New York Times Bestsellers, which
are typically $9.99 or less. More than 75,000 books have been added to the U.S.
Kindle Store in just the last five months. Starting today, Lonely Planet guides
are now available in the Kindle Store, joining existing travel guide selection
from publishers Rick Steves, Frommers and Michelin.
“Lonely Planet is excited to make a vast selection of travel guides from
Australia to Zanzibar available to Kindle customers around the world,” said
Lonely Planet CEO Matt Goldberg. “Travelers can now pack as many Lonely Planet
guides as they want into Kindle’s 10.2 ounces and download new guides wirelessly
while travelling around the world.”
Over 50 top U.S. and international newspapers such as The New York Times, The
Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Washington Post, Financial Times, The Times
(UK), Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, and the Shanghai Daily are
available in the Kindle Store for single purchase or subscription, and can now
be delivered wirelessly in over 100 countries and territories. Over 35 top
magazines, such as The Economist, Newsweek, Time, The New Yorker, Foreign
Affairs, The Atlantic, Forbes, Fortune, PC Magazine, and The New England Journal
of Medicine are also available for single purchase or subscription, and can also
be delivered wirelessly in the U.S. and abroad. U.S. Kindle customers can also
continue to take advantage of the Kindle Store’s selection of over 7,000 blogs
and receive new posts while traveling overseas.
Kindle with U.S. & International Wireless offers customers the same features
that have helped make Kindle with U.S. Wireless the #1 bestselling product on
Amazon.com, including:
Kindle with U.S. & International Wireless will be available for shipment to
customers in over 100 countries around the world on October 19. Media can visit
the Kindle Media Room at http://www.amazon.com/pr/kindle for additional media
resources and to request an interview.
About Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN), a Fortune 500 company based in Seattle, opened
on the World Wide Web in July 1995 and today offers Earth's Biggest Selection.
Amazon.com, Inc. seeks to be Earth's most customer-centric company, where
customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and
endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices. Amazon.com and
other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished and used items in
categories such as Books; Movies, Music & Games; Digital Downloads; Electronics
& Computers; Home & Garden; Toys, Kids & Baby; Grocery; Apparel; Shoes &
Jewelry; Health & Beauty; Sports & Outdoors; and Tools, Auto & Industrial.
Amazon Web Services provides Amazon’s developer customers with access to
in-the-cloud infrastructure services based on Amazon's own back-end technology
platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type of business.
Examples of the services offered by Amazon Web Services are Amazon Elastic
Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon
SimpleDB, Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), Amazon Flexible Payments
Service (Amazon FPS), Amazon Mechanical Turk and Amazon CloudFront.
Amazon and its affiliates operate websites, including www.amazon.com,
www.amazon.co.uk, www.amazon.de, www.amazon.co.jp, www.amazon.fr, www.amazon.ca,
and www.amazon.cn.
As used herein, “Amazon.com,” “we,” “our” and similar terms include Amazon.com,
Inc., and its subsidiaries, unless the context indicates otherwise.
Forward-Looking Statements
This announcement contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of
Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities
Exchange Act of 1934. Actual results may differ significantly from management's
expectations. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties
that include, among others, risks related to competition, management of growth,
new products, services and technologies, potential fluctuations in operating
results, international expansion, outcomes of legal proceedings and claims,
fulfillment center optimization, seasonality, commercial agreements,
acquisitions and strategic transactions, foreign exchange rates, system
interruption, inventory, government regulation and taxation, payments and fraud.
More information about factors that potentially could affect Amazon.com's
financial results is included in Amazon.com's filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, including its most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and
subsequent filings.
Kindle devices are sold through Amazon Digital Services, Inc.