No plans to release Kindle Fire, Kindle Touch in Europe – report


30 Sep 2011

The Amazon Kindle Fire tablet

The Amazon Kindle Fire tablet and the Kindle Touch will reportedly only be available in the US, with no indication of whether or not they will have a release in Europe.

Amazon UK told Pocket-lint that neither its Android tablet nor its touchscreen eReader will be available in Europe, and have not given a reason why.

“Today, Kindle Fire and Kindle Touch are available only in the US,” said the spokesperson, suggesting there are currently no plans to launch the device anywhere else.

However, its new design of the non-touchscreen version of the Kindle eReader will be available in Europe.

The news comes as a blow, as the tablet has gained a lot of attention for its low price point at US$199.

ZDNET suggests the reason for this could be because the Kindle Fire’s cloud-based web browser Silk would be in breach of European data-protection laws.

TechCrunch believes Amazon may not have the media content rights yet to make the tablet a worthy purchase for the European market.

There were also suggestions it could be a supply issue. Previous reports claimed the design and manufacturing of the Kindle Fire was sped up for a release in time for Christmas.