Amazon has announced the availability of its premium ebook reader, the Kindle Paperwhite, in the Indian market, alongside the launch of its
Kindle Fire HD range of tablets.
While the basic Kindle has been
available for more than ten months through Croma retail's physical stores and online through Junglee.com, Amazon's product listing service, it's the first time the company has introduced the Kindle Paperwhite in India.
The Wi-Fi version of of the Kindle Paperwhite ebook reader has been priced at Rs. 10,999, while its Wi-Fi plus 3G version costs Rs. 13,999. It will be available online at Amazon.in starting June 27. The ebook reader will also be available at over one hundred retail outlets including Croma, Reliance Digital, E-Zone and Vijay Sales in major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad and Pune.
We believe that these will be ad-free models, as the Amazon.in website does not mention that they come with special offers (ads). Amazon sells the Kindle Paperwhite in ad-supported and ad free versions in the US market. While the ad-supported Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi+3G models cost $119 and $179, respectively, the ad-free Wi-Fi only and Wi-Fi+3G models cost $139 and $199, respectively.
Amazon has also revised the Kindle ebook reader's price in India. It is now available for Rs. 5,999, Rs.1,000 less than the Rs.6,999 price it was launched at originally, in August 2012.
The Kindle Paperwhite, which was initially launched in October 2012, features a 6-inch Paperwhite display packing-in 212 pixels per inch and displaying 16 level grey scale. The Paperwhite display is essentially a front-lit display that guides light underneath an anti-glare layer and down toward the display, away from the reader's eyes, allowing readers to read with less eye fatigue and strain. Amazon claims that the e-reader offers 25 percent higher contrast for sharp, dark text and packs in 62 percent more pixels for higher resolution. The screen's brightness can be adjusted for reading in different light conditions. The Kindle Paperwhite sports a 2-point multi-touch display eliminating the need for physical buttons.
It comes with 2GB of internal storage space out of which 1.25GB is available to the user, capable of holding around 1100 books. It also offers free cloud storage for all content (books and magazines) purchased from Amazon.
The e-reader is light weight at 213 grams and promises a battery life of 8 weeks with the front-light on when Wi-Fi/ 3G connections are turned off. The Paperwhite's built-in Wi-Fi allows users to purchase and download books from the Kindle store directly through the e-reader. Amazon will also offer free 3G access with the 3G plus Wi-Fi version of Kindle Paperwhite. This essentially means that Amazon pays for the 3G connection on Kindle Paperwhite Wi-Fi + 3G, so customers pay no fees for data.
The Kindle Paperwhite also features an experimental WebKit-based browser for casual web browsing.
In addition to offering the new e-readers and Kindle Fire HD tablets, the Amazon.in website now also features the Kindle Store where users can buy ebooks. Although, it's worth pointing out that ebooks were even available earlier through Amazon.com with Indian Rupee pricing.
To mark the occasion, starting today and for the next two weeks, amazon will offer one best-selling Kindle Book each day for free to customers in India.
"Indian customers are passionate about books and reading, and we're very excited to make the best-selling e-readers in the world--Kindle and Kindle Paperwhite--available to our Amazon.in customers," said Amit Agarwal, Vice President and Country Manager, Amazon India. "We're also excited to make the Kindle Store available on Amazon.in, making it easier than ever for our customers to discover the largest e-bookstore in India."
According to the company, the India Kindle Store offers over 1.7 million books priced in Indian Rupees. Amazon says Indian customers will also enjoy over 600,000 books priced Rs.200 or less and over 1.2 million priced Rs.600 or less. Readers will also find over 325,000 Kindle-exclusive titles available to download and read on Kindle.