International Kindle drops $20 (now $259)

The price of the International Kindle has dropped by $20 today to $259. The International Kindle (International from the geographical perspective of Amazon.com) was recently announced, and it can be in over 100 countries, not just in the US.

Meanwhile, the US-only edition of this Kindle (second generation 6-inch) has disappeared from the Amazon search results, which perhaps hints that Amazon is making the international edition the default edition. That would also explain the discount, along of course with the announcement of the Barnes and Noble The Nook also at $259.

If you want to try out the Kindle, but want to spend less, and don't object to having a refurbished first-generation model, Amazon is offering refurbished Kindles for $150 via their Warehouse Deals subsidiary, but the order is fulfilled by Amazon.com herself. Sounds twisted enough that accountants and lawyers must be involved ;-)

And one more thing, you can read the main noisy blog on the Kindle! It comes with a free two-week trial, so you have nothing to lose. After the free trial, the price is 99c per month. This has the benefit of automated delivery to your K-thang by the Amazon Whispernet. If instead you want to read the main blog, but don't want to $subscribe$, you can do so by manually uploading the updates by PDF, RSS, or other formats. Some ideas at this post and many more at the hundreds of Kindle blogs out there.