Amazon

In the latest part of a story that has been cropping up since at least April 2010, The Nikkei reported yesterday that Amazon might launch the Kindle Touch soon in Japan. It might hit the market in the next couple months, with a retail predicted to be around 20 thousand yen ($258 USD).

This rumor is surprising, and not just because the launch of the Japanese Kindle Store was last reported to be delayed until 2013. No, it’s the mention of the Kindle Touch that surprises me. Amazon now has 5 local Kindle Stores (UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain). Amazon launched the 3 most recent ones with the K4, not the Kindle Touch. While they are now selling the Kindle Touch all over the world, it has not been localized for any ebookstore, while the K4 has.

The Nikkei is also claiming that Amazon will launch the Kindle Touch 3G in Japan, not the Wifi model. If true, this would make a truly unique launch. The KT 3G has not been released outside of the US.

I don’t know about you, but the more I look at this the less I believe it. What do you think?

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Amazon rolled out another update for the Kindle Android app today, and it looks like they did some serious work cleaning up the code. The v3.4 release includes a number of bug fixes, but more importantly it is also a smaller file. Amazon knocked a couple MB off the file size.

When Amazon last released an update (when they added PDF support), the app was 10MB in size. That’s actually quite large, because it replaced an app that was only 5MB. While this size difference might not matter to most people, I have heard a couple complaints from users.

This update also adds a rather fun feature. The Android app now supports page numbers. Amazon added page numbers to select Kindle eBooks last year, much to the delight of anyone who is trying to sync a paper copy with the related Kindle eBook.

Android Market

Past Kindle commercials have promoted it on price, weight, and the number of titles you can carry. Amazon even bashed the iPad once or twice. But today Amazon outdid themselves. They managed to criticize the iPad both on sunlight readability (because the K4 can be read in the sun) and on price. You can get 2 KFs and a K4 for less than the price of an iPad, obviously.

But what’s more interesting is that even though the Kindle Fire has an LCD screen similar to the iPad, Amazon still managed to bash the iPad because you cannot read it in the sun. That was particularly clever of Amazon; I didn’t think they would be able to pull it off.

It looks like the retail giant is running out of refuges in their ongoing effort to avoid sales taxes.

Amazon has long had a presence in Virginia, but they’ve never collected VA sales tax. They have distribution center in Sterling ( suburb of DC) and  data center elsewhere in the state. They also recently announced plans to open new distribution centers in the state, but those plans again did not mention collecting sales tax.

But that might change. The VA state senate is currently considering  bill that would require online retailers like Amazon to collect the 5% state sales tax if they have partners in the state. The Virginian-Pilot has more details: “On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee unanimously endorsed a bill, SB597, to require Internet companies with physical locations in Virginia to collect state sales tax. The bill from Sen. Frank Wagner, R-Virginia Beach, now heads to the Senate floor for consideration.”

A similar bill had been considered in 2010, but it died in the state assembly. Given that VA is facing some budget difficulties this year, I would say that the current bill has a better chance of passing.

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image by Tony the Misfit

Amazon has formed a licensing agreement with Viacom bringing select Viacom programming to its instant streaming service. While Amazon is trying to position itself as a competitor in the space, this agreement is non exclusive. Viacom recently signed agreements with Netflix and Hulu as well.

The service, which is free to Amazon Prime members, will now include shows from MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, TV Land, Spike, VH1, BET, CMT and Logo. It adds 15,000 videos to Amazon’s library including shows such as Jersey Shore and Spongebob Squarepants.The content is streamable online as well as on various devices including the Kindle Fire.

Brad Beale, director of video content acquisition for Amazon, stated: “This deal with Viacombrings Prime customers and Kindle Fire users thousands of comedies, kids’ shows, reality TV and much more from some of the best cable networks available. We now offer more than 15,000 movies and TV shows in Prime Instant Videos and are working hard to add even more great content.”

Last week, reports surfaced that Amazon is considering opening a bricks-and-mortar store. Today, Reuters is reporting that this store may be in Seattle, the city where the company is headquartered.

Analysts have been speculating about what the store would look like. Some say it would be a showroom for Kindle devices, not unlike an Apple store. Other have suggested that it would be like Barnes & Noble’s Nook boutiques and feature hands on customer service.

Reuters has more: “Amazon also plans to open a physical store in its home town of Seattle in coming months to showcase and sell its growing line of gadgets, including the Kindle Fire tablet, industry blog Good E-Reader reported this weekend.”

Cowen & Co. analyst Jim Friedland speculated about it in a report to investors.He wrote: “The primary goal of the test is to determine if a physical retail presence can accelerate sales of Kindle devices and follow-on consumption of digital content at an attractive return on invested capital.”

Books-a-Million and Chapters Indigo have joined Barnes & Noble in boycotting the selling of print books published by Amazon’s publishing imprints.

Indigo vice-president Janet Eger told The Globe and Mail: “In our view Amazon’s actions are not in the long-term interests of the reading public or the publishing and book retailing industry, globally. Indigo Founder and CEO Heather Reisman has congratulated Barnes & Noble for taking a leadership stance on the matter, and offers kudos.”

Last month, Barnes & Noble said that they would not carry Amazon’s books. Jaime Carey, the company’s chief merchandising officer, stated: “Our decision is based on Amazon’s continued push for exclusivity with publishers, agents and the authors they represent. These exclusives have prohibited us from offering certain e-books to our customers. Their actions have undermined the industry as a whole and have prevented millions of customers from having access to content. It’s clear to us that Amazon has proven they would not be a good publishing partner to Barnes & Noble as they continue to pull content off the market for their own self interest.”

Via TheBookseller.com.

Rumors are going around that Amazon is going to launch a bricks-and-mortar store that would compete with the likes of Target, Walmart and Costco.

But would the competitive advantage be? Amazon’s business model is based on providing inventory on every kind of random product that you could imagine and delivering it within days. They certainly wouldn’t be able to keep this kind of inventory on hand in stores.

In addition, while much of Amazon’s business is still from print books, DVDs and CDs, the company is banking on the proliferation of digital media, which is why they are focusing so much on the Kindle and Kindle Fire and selling these devices at such low prices. Why would it make sense to open a physical store to sell digital items? Perhaps to compete with Barnes & Noble’s Nook business, which is known to have better customer service than Amazon because of in-store offerings. Read more

Amazon still hasn’t released the Kindle Fire outside the US, in spite of the many interested potential customers. Luckily for the desperate KF lover, 3rd party sellers have stepped up to fill the need.

Right now you can find a small number of Kindle Fires on QoQa.fr. This is a daily deals site similar to Woot, and they have sold eReaders at least once in the past.

They’re asking €199 for this 7″ Android tablet, and that converts to about $261 USD. That’s more than the retail price in the US, but it is not a whole lot more than it would cost if I were to buy and ship the KF to France for a friend.

Do you know of any other companies selling the KF or other US-only eReaders? I’d like to hear about them.

QoQa.fr via eBouquin

It looks like South Carolina isn’t the only state who is getting into a tussle with Amazon today. According to Amazon’s recent FTC filings, the state of Arizona wants Amazon to hand over all the state sales taxes that they hadn’t been collection since 2006.

“The State of Arizona is alleging that we should have collected a transaction tax that is similar to a sales tax on applicable transactions during those years,” Amazon said in its annual 10-K regulatory filing. “We believe that the assessment is without merit and intend to vigorously defend ourselves in this matter.”

This collection notice is similar to the one that Texas attempted to collect last year, only in that case Texas caved on the estimated $269 million in unpaid taxes. Arizona sent the bill over in November, and it includes both the unpaid tax as well as interest. They indicted that Amazon could pay by credit card or in small bills.

There’s one detail about this story that, once you know about it, is going to eat away at you. How would the state of Arizona know that the bill should be $4453 million, and not $63 million (or some other figure)? I don’t believe Amazon is required to disclose earnings by state, so that $53 million bill is likely only a guesstimate of the true cost.

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image by dherrera_96