Amazon cuts cost of electronic book reader

Amazon is cutting the price of its electronic book reader the Kindle as it prepares to launch the device in Britain, the company announced yesterday.

An international version of the e-reader, which can be used in 100 countries including the UK, will go on sale later this month in a bid to capture a worldwide customer base and keep ahead of competitors.

At the same time, Amazon said it was to knock $50 (£31.4) off the price of the Kindle, bringing it down to $259 (£163). When it launched in 2007 it cost $dollars (£251).

The international version will go on sale at $279 (£175). It will be available in the UK from October 19.

Amazon's UK website says the first Kindles, which download books via a free mobile phone signal from a library of 250,000 titles, must be ordered from the US and will be subject to import duties.

It adds there are plans to introduce a UK-based version at a later date.

The Kindle boasts that it weighs less than a paperback but can hold 1,500 books.

UK national newspapers will also be available through the device.

Other features include a battery life that can last up to two weeks and an electronic ink display that is easy on the eye, Amazon's website claims. The company's device is the current market leader. Forrester Research estimates that just under two-thirds of the estimated three million e-readers that will be sold this year will be provided by Amazon.

Sony's Pocket Edition comes in second, responsible for 35 per cent of the market.

Amazon's chief executive officer Jeff Bezos has suggested that e-readers will eventually surpass paper when it comes to the most popular way of reading.

"I think that ultimately we will sell more books in Kindle editions than we do in physical editions," he said in an interview.

In a separate development, a judge in New York yesterday set a new deadline for Google and US publishers to submit a new deal that could see the internet giant get the rights to millions of out-of-print books.

Microsoft, Yahoo and other opponents attacked the original settlement as a conspiracy to create a monopoly that will drive up book prices and make Google's online search engine even more influential than it already is.

The US government has said it believes that the existing agreement would violate antitrust laws.