With reference to this Times Online article, it seems that the Amazon Kindle and the Sony Reader are to be made available in the UK sometime over the next few months — it’s about bloody time!
…the launch of two rival devices due to come on sale in Britain over the next few months – Sony’s Reader and Amazon’s Kindle.
Although I already have my own Sony Reader, which I purchased while still working on the cruise ships out of Florida, I’m hoping this will mean I can start to purchase books for it from the Connect store. At present I have to settle for public domain books (PG, manybooks.net, etc) or download PDF’s from eBooks.com.
Other good news is that the two big British publishers, Random House and Hachette, which together have over 30% of the UK book market, are to offer downloadable versions for many of their top authors, ranging from Delia Smith to Ian McEwan and Michael Parkinson.
According to the article, “every other major publisher is drawing up plans to follow suit” which can only be good for the eBook market.
UPDATE: Sony and Waterstones have teamed up to release the Reader PRS-505 in the UK, available from September 2008.