blog Those of you with long memories will recall that Amazon largely left Australia off the list in September last year when it launched its new Kindle Fire HD tablet and e-reader devices, allowing Australians to order only the lowest-end model unveiled at the time. Since that point, Amazon has gradually been opening up its Kindle range to Australians, culminating in the news overnight that the Kindle Fire HD models are now available. The company’s media release states:
“Today Amazon announced that Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9” are now available to customers in over 170 countries and territories around the world for pre-order through Amazon.com, giving customers access to millions of apps, games, books, audiobooks and magazines, including more than 300,000 books that are exclusive to the Kindle Store … Kindle Fire HD 8.9” is available for preorder starting today for just $284 at www.amazon.com/global-kindle-fire-hd-8.9. Kindle Fire HD 7” is available for preorder starting today for just $214 at www.amazon.com/global-kindle-fire-hd.”
The prices which Amazon is asking for the Kindle Fire HD models are actually pretty good, although given how late they are to the Australian market and how fierce competition is in the tablet market right now, I would still like to see them cut down further. After all, we’re not talking about beautiful stock Android here — we’re talking about tablets with Amazon’s bastardised operating system installed, which has a huge focus on you buying stuff and Amazon cashing in. In a market where the top-of-the-line Nexus 7 and 10 have been available for quite some time and aren’t breaking the bank, Amazon ought to be able to go cheaper here. This is already old technology, and the Kindle app is also available on every platform anyway.
Image credit: Amazon
About time they opened up the market to Australians.. Although this is tin foil hat stuff, it does coincidently match up with the Fire HD being hacked and a decent rom being released recently :)
Prime?
Bwahaha. NEVAR.
Yeah that’s a problem. Given a U.S. Prime account also gives users unlimited access to Amazon Instant video, its rather central to the device’s operation as an media consumption device. I’m sure the experience will be a bit gimped in Australia, unless Amazon Instant video has been made available to global customers (very unlikely). I agree with Renai that’s its overpriced, particularly for an advertisement-subsidised device.
Too little & too late.
Have already purchased a much cheaper Chinese tablet that has many more features & better performance.
Tricky Dickie has the Kindle Fire HD 7 on pre-order for $229
http://dicksmith.com.au/product/TA7003/
Good to see the pricing not dis-similar.
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