Amazon pushes forward with Kindle Fire HD’s international expansion

Amazon is greatly expanding the number of countries where its Kindle Fire HD tablets are available, the company announced Thursday. The Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ slates are available for preorder in “over 170 countries and territories around the world” today and will start shipping on June 13 in new regions.

The tablets were already available in the U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Japan (as well as the U.S., of course). While a 4G LTE version of the Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ is available in the U.S., only Wi-Fi versions are available internationally.

“Kindle Fire HD is the #1 best-selling item in the world for Amazon since its launch, and we’re thrilled to make it available to even more customers around the globe today,” Dave Limp, VP Kindle, said in a statement.

In the U.S., the 8.9-inch Kindle Fire HD, which is Amazon’s answer to the iPad, got a big price cut in March. The 4G LTE, 32 GB version, which had been $ 499, was cut to $ 399. The Wi-Fi-only version of the same tablet got a price cut of $ 30 — to $ 269 for the 16 GB version and $ 299 for the 32 GB version. Internationally, prices will vary based on operating costs.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

  • Tablets wars: Apple is from Venus, Amazon is from Mars
  • What Amazon’s new Kindle line means for Apple, Netflix and online media
  • A look back at mobile in the third quarter

    


GigaOM