Amazon is expanding into newer markets with the Kindle. It has announced plans to make the Kindle available in over 100 countries including India this month. The date set for making the kindle available has been set to 19 October. We had blogged about the kindle and how books would be read 5 years from now. We also covered the launch of kindle 2 and what we expect from e-readers.



The international kindle can be pre-ordered by readers around the world for $279 atwww.amazon.com/kindle. Kindle allows one to store upto 1500 books and Indians would have access to over 270,000 books via Amazon available for download.

But does it make sense for Indians to buy a Kindle?

Well Kindle lets you download books via 3G wireless technology and would use a telecom operator for the same. There is no information on which telecom operator Amazon plans to rope in for India. Nonetheless with 3G auction on delayed path it seems unlikely that the 3G aspect would even matter for now.

Hence one would have to scout for a Wifi hotspot to use the kindle to download books. One can also download content to a PC and then transfer it to the Kindle. If you are an avid book reader then this might be something you should get your hands on asap. Otherwise we suggest you wait and watch both 3G rollout and the kindle prices sliding downwards for India. We feel just like the iphone the uptake for a kindle would be limited in India.