Amazon has officially announced today that the Amazon Kindle Fire HD series of tablets will available in the UK starting October 25th.The new models will be available at bookstore chain Waterstones and will cost £129 for the improved first generation Kindle Fire, £159 for the Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 7in 32GB for £199. Right now there is no availability for the 8 inch version with LTE/4G internet access. The Kindle Paperwhite will also be available for £74.50, and features a glowing display to allow customers to read in the dark.
James Daunt, managing director of Waterstones said: “The availability of Kindle at Waterstones means that our customers can now enjoy the pleasures of both physical books and e-books in-store. We are investing heavily in our shops with an emphasis on creating beautiful bookshops with a better range of books than ever.”
There are some drawbacks with the new Amazon Kindle Fire HD line of tablets in the United Kingdom. Customers will be unable to take advantage of some of the new features including; Whispersync for Voice and Immersion Reading. These two new features allow you to highlight text as an audiobook is being played and read a book and then pickup where the book left off on the audio version. These two new enhancements brought to you in conjunction with Audible will be USA exclusives for the duration of 2012.
If you live outside the United Kingdom you can get your hands on it on launch day via Shop e-Readers.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
