Amazon has taken a step towards providing a broader selection of its services in India, with the launch of the India Kindle Store on Amazon.com, found at amazon.com/kindlestoreindia. Users will get access to wide selection of e-books, including Indian authors, and exclusive works, priced in Indian Rupees.
Another major step is that the popular Amazon Kindle e-book reader will now be available via Croma retail stores. For now, it looks like only the 6-inch Kindle E-Reader Wi-Fi will be available, at Rs. 6,999. Customers can also purchase Kindle, Kindle Touch e-book readers and Kindle Touch 3G tablet from Amazon.com, with shipment to India.
Independent Indian authors and publishers will be glad to know that Amazon also launched Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), giving them a fast, free and easy way to make their books available to Kindle customers in India and around the world on both Kindle devices and free Kindle reading apps.
With KDP, authors and publishers will be able to set India-specific prices, as well as receive royalty payments in rupees. Visit Amazon’s KDP page for more details – kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/help.
Russ Grandinetti, vice president of Kindle Content, Amazon.com, spoke on the occasion, saying: “We are proud to launch this new Kindle store for Indian customers – offering Kindle book purchases in rupees and the ability to buy and read the work of many great Indian authors. In addition, we are excited to work with Croma to make Kindle available at retail outlets across India.”
So far, Amazon’s only real foray in the Indian market had been with junglee.com, a product aggregator that tries to help consumers find the best deals online, and offline in India. We’ve been waiting for Amazon to bring its retail services into India for a while now, allowing users to enjoy a much wider selection of products, along with free shipping, apart from giving retailers big and small a chance to sell their wares. In time, once these services begin, along with digital content, we can expect Amazon Prime services to be available as well.