Amazon cuts Japan Kindle prices to well below U.S.
News On Japan via computerworld.com -- Nov 08

Amazon.com, a latecomer to Japan's e-reader market, is slashing its Kindle prices in the country before it has shipped a single device.

Just two weeks after announcing it would launch its first Japanese-language e-reader, the company cut prices on its Kindle Paperwhite by about 5 percent, to US$100. The company is already accepting orders for the device and will begin shipping it this month.

In the U.S., the Paperwhite costs $120 for the standard version and $140 for an ad-free version. The Japanese version appears to be ad-free, though a company spokeswoman could not immediately confirm if that will be the case.

Amazon's new price matches that of a newly announced Kobo e-reader, sold by Japanese online retailer Rakuten. The company announced its "kobo glo", with a backlit screen similar to the Kindle Paperwhite, last week.




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