US retailer Amazon began on March 28 to sell premium models of its Kindle e-book reader in major European nations where only two basic fourth-generation models of the device had been available so far. But it is still not offering the colour display model Kindle Fire, a 199-dollar barebones tablet computer only available in the United States.
Europe has taken longer than the United States to develop a taste for e-reader devices, which last much longer on a single battery charge than computers or phones can.
The two black-and-white Kindle models, previously only sold in the United States, both feature a touch-screen. In Germany and France they will cost 129 euros (172 dollars) with a wi-fi connection and 189 euros with a free UMTS mobile-telephone link to download electronic books.
Customers can place orders immediately, but Amazon announced it would not be fulfilling orders in Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Spain until April 27. Amazon says it is world market leader but does not disclose its sales volumes.
Gordon Willoughby, Amazon chief of content for Europe, told dpa, "We have found customers who buy a Kindle buy three times as many books as they did before."
A Berlin-based company that vends e-books, txtr, forecast that e-book sales, which made up 1 per cent of German book sales last year, would reach 2.5 percent this year. Its chief, Thomas Leliveld, said US e-book turnover had risen to six percent of overall sales.