This isn’t scientific, but it certainly communicates the basic truth of the matter.

As of 4:30 pm Eastern time today, August 5, a US Kindle customer could have purchased the top 25 bestselling books in the US Kindle Store sales rankings for a grand total of $252.10.

Over in the UK, at exactly the same time, a UK Kindle customer could have purchased the top 25 bestselling books in the UK Kindle Store sales rankings for a grand total of £99.13, which is the equivalent of $157.58 in US dollars.

The books that make up the two lists, of course, are not exactly the same, although there is a fair amount of overlap. In general terms, the average of $10.08 for US Kindle Store bestsellers and $6.30 as the dollar equivalent of the average for UK Kindle Store bestsellers summarizes the overall pricing scheme quite well.

The difference between $252.10 and $157.58 is $94.52, and it means that US Kindle customers pay 59.98 per cent more for our Kindle bestsellers.

But we’ve got the agency model, and the Brits don’t! So there….

Oh, one more thing.

21 of the top 25 UK bestsellers have text-to-speech enabled, compared with 10 of the top 25 in the US.

Here’s an exciting update to our earlier “From the Kindle Nation Mailbag” post on subscribing to Kindle Nation Daily blog in the UK!

 

Here’s Amazon’s press release on the launch of the UK Kindle Store today. And we’ve been hearing that other countries are soon to come!

Amazon.co.uk Launches Kindle Store with the Biggest Selection and Lowest Prices

Over 400,000 books available including 84 of the 100 Nielsen UK Bestsellers

LUXEMBOURG—5th August 2010 – Amazon.co.uk today launched the UK Kindle Store (www.amazon.co.uk/kindlestore) with the biggest selection and lowest prices of any e-bookstore in the UK. Over 400,000 books are now available from the UK Kindle Store, including 84 of the 100 Nielsen UK Bestsellers. On 29th July, Amazon.co.uk started taking pre-orders for the all-new Kindle featuring a new electronic-ink screen with 50 percent better contrast than any other e-reader, a new sleek design with a 21 percent smaller body while still keeping the same 6-inch-size reading area, and a 15 percent lighter weight at just 8.7 ounces (247 grams). The all-new Kindle with free 3G wireless is available for £149 and Kindle Wi-Fi for only £109. 

The UK Kindle Store features a vast selection of titles, including New Releases and Bestsellers, from UK authors including Terry Pratchett, Ian Rankin, Martina Cole, Sophie Kinsella and Ken Follett. The selection includes exclusives to the Kindle Store such as contemporary classics from the Wylie Agency’s new Odyssey Editions imprint including Salman Rushdie’s “Midnight’s Children,” John Cheever’s “The Stories of John Cheever,” Vladimir Nabokov’s “Lolita,” Norman Mailer’s “The Naked and the Dead,” and Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man.” The Kindle Store also features a host of top titles not available at other leading e-bookstore stores such as BBC Samuel Johnson Prize winner “Nothing to Envy” by Barbara Demick, “Family Ties” from Danielle Steel and “Broken” by Karin Slaughter, and over 1 million free titles are available to download and read on Kindle. 

Customers can pre-order their Kindle today and any books that they purchase from the Kindle Store will be available to read on the device the moment it arrives. 

“The Kindle Store offers the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read at low prices,” said Russ Grandinetti, Vice President of Kindle Content, Amazon.com. “The all-new Kindle will begin shipping at the end of the month, but customers can start reading books from the massive UK Kindle Store today by downloading any of our free Kindle apps for the most popular devices.”

Kindle lets you buy your books once and read them everywhere—on Kindle, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, and Android-based devices. Amazon’s Whispersync technology syncs your place across all devices, so you can pick up where you left off. With Kindle Worry-Free Archive, books you purchase from the Kindle Store, and any notes or annotations you create, are automatically backed up online in your Kindle library on Amazon.co.uk where they can be re-downloaded wirelessly for free, anytime. 

Below are Kindle book prices for a selection of Amazon.co.uk’s current Bestsellers:
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest Stieg Larsson £2.70
The Help Kathryn Stockett £2.79
One Day David Nicholls £2.79
The Lost Symbol Dan Brown £3.41
The Legacy Katherine Webb £3.35
Eclipse Stephenie Meyer £3.14
I Shall Wear Midnight Terry Pratchett £8.54
Artemis Fowl and the Atlantis Complex Eoin Colfer £5.84
Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert £3.58
The Third Man Peter Mandelson £11.25 

“Amazon.co.uk has been a destination for millions of book customers since 1998 and our new Kindle Store introduces another way for passionate readers to take full advantage of our vast selection and great prices,” said Greg Greeley, Amazon Vice President, European Retail. “The opening of the UK Kindle store allows customers to buy content in pound sterling and offers a great shopping experience including UK customer reviews, recommendations, bestseller lists and customer service.” 

Over 170 top UK and international newspapers and magazines are also available in the UK Kindle store for single purchase or subscription. UK titles in this selection include The Daily Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Economist, The Independent, The Financial Times and The Evening Standard. Kindle customers can also subscribe to over 9,000 blogs. All subscriptions are auto-delivered wirelessly to Kindle and start with a free 14-day trial. 

Customers can visit the new UK Kindle Store now at www.amazon.co.uk/kindlestore. 

Customers can discover full details and pre-order the new Kindle and Kindle Wi-Fi at www.amazon.co.uk/kindle3G and www.amazon.co.uk/kindleWi-Fi.  

For new high-resolution images of the new generation Kindle, visit www.amazon.com/pr/kindle/images.  

Hello, As a UK kindle user and a Kindle Nation Daily subscriber, can I now get Kindle Nation Daily direct to my Kindle?

Thank you.

Euan

Shop for Kindle titles at Amazon.co.uk

Dear Bonnie Prince Charlie,
Great news! Our UK customers may now purchase Kindle titles in Pounds Sterling (GBP). The new UK Kindle Store has the same great shopping experience and low prices you’re used to.
Additionally, there are no foreign currency transaction fees when using a UK credit card, you can read reviews from other UK customers, and you may use your Amazon.co.uk 1-Click payment method for Kindle purchases.
Simply click the link below to begin the migration of your account. Your purchased content will automatically transfer from Amazon.com to Amazon.co.uk. We hope you enjoy the new experience.

Please click the Transfer your Kindle account button above to automatically transfer your content and account settings to Amazon.co.uk. By clicking the Transfer your Kindle account button, you’re also agreeing to the Kindle License Agreement and Terms of Use. If you have active subscriptions, you agree to cancel your subscriptions with Amazon.com and restart them with Amazon.co.uk at the periodical’s monthly price and terms specified in the Amazon.co.uk Kindle Store.

As we noted previously, reading on the new Kindle 3G and Kindle Wi-Fi will be easier than ever for all of us, and especially for the visually impaired or anyone else with vision issues, with several new accessibility features:

• Text-to-speech is now augmented with new voice-guided text-to-speech enabled menus that allow us to navigate on the Kindle without having to read menu options or content listings and item descriptions on the home screen. The new Voice Guide audible menuing feature handles all of that.
• New hand-built, custom fonts and font-hinting make words and letters more crisp, clear, and natural-looking, including a very clean new san serif font.
• Amazon is also releasing a brand new lighted Kindle cover, sold separately for $59.99, that includes an integrated retractable LED reading light that never needs batteries and hides away into the cover when not in use. It lights the entire Kindle display without glare and draws its power directly from the Kindle’s battery through the new gold-plated conductive hinges that connect the Kindle to the cover.

How are these improvements playing for the organization that filed suit against Arizona State University (ASU) to prevent the university from deploying the Kindle DX last year? The press release below from the National Federation for the Blind pretty much speaks for itself.

BALTIMORE, July 29 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) today commended Amazon on the unveiling of a new, accessible Kindle.  Amazon announced Wednesday that the new Kindle will come equipped with a voice guide that reads all menu options aloud so blind and other print-disabled people can navigate the device menus.

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: “We commend Amazon on the unveiling of a new Kindle that blind and print-disabled people can use.  In order to compete in today’s digital society, blind and print-disabled people must be able to access the same reading technologies as the sighted.  The National Federation of the Blind has long been urging Amazon to make its reading device accessible, and we are pleased that our efforts have come to fruition.”

In June 2009 the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind (ACB) filed suit against Arizona State University (ASU) to prevent the university from deploying Amazon’s Kindle DX electronic reading device as a means of distributing electronic textbooks to its students because the device cannot be used by blind students.  The Kindle DX featured text-to-speech technology that can read textbooks aloud to blind students.  The menus of the device were not accessible to the blind, however, making it impossible for a blind user to purchase books from Amazon’s Kindle store, select a book to read, activate the text-to-speech feature, and use the advanced reading functions available on the Kindle DX.

For more information on the National Federation of the Blind, please visit www.nfb.org.

About the National Federation of the Blind

With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind is the largest and most influential membership organization of blind people in the United States.  The NFB improves blind people’s lives through advocacy, education, research, technology, and programs encouraging independence and self-confidence.  It is the leading force in the blindness field today and the voice of the nation’s blind.  In January 2004 the NFB opened the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and training center in the United States for the blind led by the blind.